Charmed Again: With a Shadow of a Doubt
by JoshingAbout
Summary: Episode 1/22 of the "Charmed Again" series. When an old enemy is released from its magical prison, can Piper's next generation of Halliwell witches thwart the evil in time before it consumes a power that could throw the entire world off balance?
1. Earthquake

**Author's Note: This 'Episode' is the first of three introductory Episodes that aim to introduce you to the new characters. This Episode focuses on Piper and Leo's family - Wyatt, Chris and Melinda, Episode Two will focus on Phoebe and Coop's family - Penelope, Charlotte and Grace, and Episode Three will focus on Paige and Henry's family - Henry Jr, Pandora and Samantha.**

**Author's Note: This chapter is meant to be a 'teaser' of sorts – imagine it as the snippet of the episode you see before the show's credits play.**

* * *

**Episode 1x01:  
**"With a Shadow of a Doubt"

The ground beneath the Halliwell Manor trembled as an earthquake rippled through San Francisco. The sun peaked out from beyond the horizon and began to rise above the city. Inside the Manor, picture frames were turned askew on the walls, the chandeliers clattered against themselves and the family stirred as the quake began to subside.

"Is everyone okay?" Piper shouted, darting out of her room with Leo right behind her. "Melinda?"

The door at the end of the hall opened slowly and a messy, brown-haired Melinda traipsed out of her room, rubbing her eyes, "Boy, talk about a wake-up call," she said, yawning. "I'm fine, mom."

"Wyatt?" Leo called as he walked towards his son's door.

"I'm good," Wyatt replied, opening the door to his room. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah … what time is it?" Melinda groaned, lazily looking at her watch. "Ugh, far too early … Wake me up in about an hour and a half. Goodnight … morning … whatever," she sighed, retreating into her room and closing the door.

"Wyatt, are you dressed already?" Leo asked, noticing his son's notice difference in attire.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I'm opening the store early because there's a delivery this morning. I thought I'd get an early start."

"Early start? Now is still too early to be early," Piper joked, "You'd never catch me running to the Restaurant at this time in the morning!"

"I dunno, Piper. A fancy breakfast in pyjamas sounds romantic," Leo chimed in, sneaking his arm around his wife and smiling.

"You think so, huh?" Piper laughed.

"I just want to make sure I give a good impression, since this'll be the first time I've handled a delivery by myself," he sighed again, "I'd better finish getting ready." He stepped back into his room and closed the door.

"Yep, everything is definitely back to normal," Piper said, smiling at her husband. Piper's head suddenly twitched to the side as she looked upwards as if trying to remember something. Her eyes widened as she faced Leo. She shot off along the corridor and thundered down the stairs. "CHRIS?"

* * *

Chris lay on his bed wrapped up in the quilt with his eyes tightly shut, waiting for the noise and the shaking to stop. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, he realised that the room had fallen silent and the rocking of his room was minimal. He opened his eyes and sat up, surveying the darkness of his converted basement bedroom. He slid out of his bed and made his way to the very back of the room where the recently installed door to the back of the house stood. He took half a dozen steps towards the door when a sudden pain shot up his leg from his foot.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, hopping towards the door while trying to hold the pained foot in his hands. He reached the door and as he unlocked and opened it a dim light streamed in from the still-rising sun. He brushed off the dust and sharp wooden splinters that were sticking into his foot and looked back to where he had stood on something painful. The light pouring into the room revealed that a foot-long crack in the concrete subfloor had burst through the room's laminate flooring. "Damned earthquake," he said as moved over to his bed and began to set the pillows and quilt into their proper place.

Unbeknownst to Chris, a black smoke began to rise up out of the gaping hole in the floor behind him. "FFRRREEEEEEEE!" it said in a husky, echoing voice, before it quickly dissipated into the shadows on the opposite side of the room from the male witch.

Chris bolted around, "Who's there?" The room was silent.

"Free…" the voice said again.

"Who are you?" Chris asked, moving towards where the smoke had dissipated into the shadows. The smoke subtly wormed its way up the shadowed wall, across the darkened ceiling and back down the wall now behind Chris. It then formed from the shadows, slowly making its way to the young witch-white lighter.

Chris moved forward and outstretched an arm, adamant that something was there. His focus was disrupted as felt the breeze whip past him and the wind whistle between the leaves of the trees outside. He lowered his arm and shook his head. He turned around and saw the monstrous black smoke moving towards him. Surprised, he stumbled backwards and threw his arm out towards the black being, focusing his telekinetic powers on the smoke.

But nothing happened. He tried again, lashing his arm forwards and straining his mind. Nothing. The smoke was close now. Chris' eyes widened as tendrils of darkness threatened to invade his mouth and nostrils. Wisps of darkness slithered around his waist, wanting to pull him closer. He closed his eyes and his body burst into a flurry of bright white orbed lights. The smoke hissed and withdrew in surprise. The witch-whitelighter's body of white orbs moved upwards, but the shadow mounted the offensive and quickly whipped around the shining white lights, encasing it in a thick shroud of darkness. The smoke swirled around where Chris' body hung in mid-air and in mid-orb, gaining momentum until the blackness faded into nothingness.

A moment later, swirling black orbs faded into the room and Chris reappeared.

Sounds could be heard from upstairs and they grew louder and louder as the source neared the basement door.

"Chris?" Piper yelled, knocking on the door before opening it roughly. She stepped onto the top of the stairs into her son's room and looked down, seeing her son. "Chris, are you okay?" she asked, out of breath.

Chris smiled as he looked up to his concerned mother. "Mom, I'm fine. You worry too much," he laughed.

Piper sighed heavily and nodded, "I know I do. But that's why you love me," she smiled. She nodded again before quietly stepping out of Chris' room and closing the door behind her.

Chris laughed to himself. "Don't worry about me …" he said as his eyes briefly turned pitch black and a smirk danced upon his lips. "I'll be just fine."

* * *

Author's Note: Please leave a review!


	2. Normal Lives

**Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of its established characters. Any non-canon characters and situations are of my own creation.**

* * *

**Episode 1x01:**

"With a Shadow of a Doubt"

Melinda hastily made her way down the stairs and crossed the floor into the parlour, stopping abruptly in front of the large mirror that hung over the mantelpiece. She fluffed her hair and flicked it back. Content with her appearance, Melinda spun around and headed for the front door.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Piper asked, standing at the foot of the stairs, "Isn't your father expecting you?"

"I'm gonna be a little late," Melinda said, opening the door, "I just have an errand to run before heading to Magic School. See you later, mom," she quickly walked through the door and began to close it behind her.

"_PRUDENCE MELINDA HALLIWELL!_"

Melinda cringed and froze in place. She turned around to face her mother. "Yes?" she said with an innocent smile spread across her face.

"If I find that you _'didn't quite make it to Magic School'_ again," Piper said, mimicking her daughter's past excuse, "there's going to be big trouble," she gave Melinda a stern look. "There's no point in volunteering to be a member of the Magic School Student Committee if you have no intention of taking part ... even if it _is_ still summer."

"I'm not even a student there anymore," Melinda argued, "I graduated two months ago, remember?"

"Still … you can't just let people down because you don't want to do your part to help. Trust me, I've learned that the hard way," Piper said, her face warming. "Now, gather your committee things and get your butt to Magic School," she instructed, motioning for her daughter to re-enter the Manor.

Sighing in defeat, Melinda stepped into the Manor and pulled the door to a close. Piper smiled and then made her way to the kitchen. Melinda walked down the hall and up the first few steps of the stairs onto the bottom half-landing. She pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket and flicked it open. She dialled a number and put the phone to her ear.

"Hey," she said, smiling into the mobile device, "um, about today … I'm gonna have to cancel. I'm really sorry but if I don't go to school I'm gonna get my ass handed to me … Rain check? … Yeah, tonight sounds great. Okay, see you then. Bye," she snapped her phone shut and slid it back into her jacket pocket. "I hate Mondays…"

She extended an arm towards the wall in front of her, which followed the stairs to her left up to the first floor of the house, and said:

"_School of hidden mysteries,  
Reveal yourself to me."_

In front of Melinda's outstretched arm the image of a large arched brown door faded into sight. Melinda twisted the old metal handle and pushed the door forwards, revealing a large, empty hallway with marble floors and wooden pillars standing firm at regular intervals along the vast corridor. Melinda stepped through the open door into Magic School and quickly walked down the bright hallway. The door swung shut behind her and its image faded from sight.

* * *

Piper stirred the contents of the pan that were cooking nicely on the stove. She hummed as she lost herself in her cooking. To her left, the door to the basement opened and out walked her son.

"Morning, sunshine," she said, smiling at her brown-haired progeny. "Did you enjoy Mother Nature's alarm clock?"

"Heh, yeah. That was quite an experience," Chris answered.

"Gosh, I haven't felt an earthquake like that since… it must have been twenty… seven years ago. Ugh, now I feel old," she joked, "of course, last time the tremor released a shadow trapped under the basement that possessed your Aunt Phoebe."

Chris' eyes darkened as he looked at his mother. "You…" he said, his voice deeper than usual. Piper narrowed her eyes as she looked at her son and tilted her head inquisitively. Realising his change of voice, Chris coughed and patted his chest. "You … still remember?"

"_Yeah! _It's kind of hard to forget your sister and the house plotting against you," Piper chuckled, moving to the television on the counter and turning it on. "I wonder what the news has to say about the earthquake." She used the remote control to change the channel on the TV to a local news channel.

"Seismologists confirm that the earthquake that hit San Francisco in the early hours of this morning was indeed a 4.7 on the Richter scale," the news reporter announced.

Chris looked at the back of his mother with hatred in his eyes. He looked down at his shaking hand and in it an athamé appeared in a puff of black smoke. His eyes widened and he shook his head in shock.

"What the hell?" Chris muttered to himself, eyeing the bladed weapon with amazement before hiding it behind his back.

"It was more powerful than that one a few years ago," Piper stated, "and even more powerful than the one that released the Woogyman. Thankfully he was vanquished years ago along with the Nexus. God knows what would have happened this time if he wasn't dead." Piper bent down to turn the oven on. As she did so, a live grenade with no pin appeared in Chris' free hand in a puff of black smoke.

Chris' eyes widened in utter disbelief. He turned and headed down the steps into his basement bedroom in a panic. His tongue seemed tied as he racked his brain for a solution to his problem. Then suddenly the words seemed to burst out of him:

_"I'm a witch, no grenadier  
… So … make this weapon disappear!"_

He threw the grenade out of the door at the back of his room and watched as fire burst from the round projectile but was consumed by white light before it vanished from sight.

Piper, still bent down adjusting the shelves in the oven, carried on, "So, Chris, what're you up to today?" She received no answer. She stood up and looked for her son, but he was nowhere in sight. She shook her head and muttered to herself, "I'll never understand that boy."

In the basement, Chris stood still, amazed at what had just happened. He shuddered at the thought of what could have happened if he had held that grenade for a few seconds longer. His grip on the athamé tightened as he hid it under his pillow, as if it didn't want to be released. "What the hell is going on?" he asked himself, finally tearing his hand away from the weapon's grip, stumbling backwards. Chris steadied himself for a moment, breathing heavily. He looked upwards as his body burst into a flurry of spiralling black orbs.

The swirling dark orbs condensed into a black shadow before Chris reappeared in the attic doorway, making his way to the Book of Shadows. "Maybe the Book has some answers," he muttered to himself. As he reached for the ancestral tome, it glowed with a golden light before a spherical nova of energy burst from it throwing Chris back towards the attic door.

Picking himself off of the floor, Chris stared at the book with wide eyes and a look of terror across his face. He straightened his poise and his expression darkened. With a flick of his fingers the Book of Shadows swung open. The pages struggled against Chris' telekinetic will, as if they didn't want to turn. Chris moved in front of the Book and hovered over it with both hands outstretched, pressing down on the tome with an invisible force. After a moment of shaking and fighting against Chris' power the Book lay still on its stand. A sinister smile creeped upon Chris' lips as his eyes flashed a pure black once more. He waved his fingers over the Book and began to turn the pages.

* * *

Wyatt sat at his desk scanning the barcodes of the numerous books that were delivered in the morning delivery. He briefly looked up and surveyed the store that he worked in. It was a decent-sized room filled with shelves that were stacked to the brim with books on varying subjects. He looked out of the shop window and noticed the increasing number of people that began to flood into the mall even though it hadn't long opened.

A loud grumble from his stomach brought his attention to his now-obvious hunger. He gently rubbed his belly before laying down the books he was scanning. He rummaged underneath his desk for a moment before sitting back up in his chair, "Don't tell me I forgot breakfast again…" he said to himself. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened his palm, concentrating so he could summon his lunch to his outstretched arms and quench the blazing hunger in his belly. He sighed and opened his eyes. He knew it was wrong, using his powers for his own gain, especially for something as trivial as food - he worked in a mall, he could just go and buy something to eat.

A loud ringing from the back of the shop drew Wyatt's immediate attention. He put the snack down and ran towards the noise. Moving through the 'Staff Only' door, Wyatt picked up the phone that rang loudly on the desk in front of him.

"Hello?" He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone. "The Occult? Yeah we have a few books about it … Don't worry, I'm not here to judge – it's an interesting subject … Is there any book in particular that you want? … _Black and White Magic: Through the Ages_, let me just check that for you," Wyatt typed and clicked away at the computer in front of him, checking the catalogues for the book in question, "aha, you're in luck. There are two copies left … Sure thing, just come by the shop and I'll have it ready for you. See you, bye." He put the phone down and made his way back to the front of the shop.

As we moved towards the front desk another pang of hunger struck Wyatt as his stomach growled once more. He clutched his belly and pouted slightly, gazing aimlessly at his desk. His vision was drawn to the mall beyond the shop window, where a young girl, most likely in her early twenties or very late teens, was setting up a small food cart that sold a variety of edible goods. Wyatt picked up the ravaged paper bag and stuffed it into the trash can next to his desk. He retrieved a small piece of paper from his workspace and scribbled the words "Back in 5 minutes" on it before taping it to the shop door's window. He exited the store and walked over to the food cart.

"Excuse me, are you open? Or is it too early?" Wyatt asked the girl, who was fumbling underneath the cart looking for something.

"Sorry, we're not open for another half hour," the girl replied from under the cart. As she stood up she blinked in surprise at Wyatt's tall and handsome façade. She blushed slightly and smiled, "But I think I can make an exception, just this once. What would you like, Wyatt?"

"How did you know my n-"

"Your name tag," the girl laughed.

Wyatt looked down at the tag that was pinned to his chest, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"So," the girl said, preparing her workspace for food preparation, "what'll it be?"

"Uh … do you have anything breakfasty?"

"Breakfasty … hmm … I have just the thing!" the girl said, instantly beginning to work on Wyatt's meal. She pulled out a large bagel, cut in half horizontally and buttered it. "Oh, I just thought: are you a vegetarian?"

"Oh, no."

"Good, good."

"So, I didn't quite catch your name?" Wyatt asked.

"The name's Debbie. So, Wyatt, what brings you here so early?" Debbie enquired, retrieving two rashers of bacon from the fridge under the cart and placing them on the grill atop the cart.

"I work at the book store just there," Wyatt motioned to the shop just behind them.

"You like books?"

"Yeah, I'm quite the reader."

"A man that likes reading? What a pleasant surprise," Debbie smiled, slicing a block of cheese and applying the slices onto the bagel.

"Why are you so surprised?"

"Maybe it's just my luck, but I've been acquainted with far too many an idiot jock who thinks Playboy is the height of sophistication," Debbie said as she flipped the bacon over.

"That _is_ bad luck," Wyatt chuckled.

"Well, I'm hoping my luck will turn around," Debbie smiled, looking up at the handsome man in front of her with her deep green eyes.

"I hope it turns around for you too," Wyatt replied flashing her a smile.

"Speaking of luck, what're the chances of that Earthquake, eh?" Debbie said.

"Oh yeah. That was a wake-up and a half, but I don't mind earthquakes – in fact, I rather like them. It's an interesting way to shake up the day, don't you think?" Wyatt grinned as he received a smile in return.

After a moment of silence and preparation, Debbie packed the finished bagel into a toaster, "Toasting it just gives it a little something extra."

"You sure seem to enjoy cooking," Wyatt noted.

"Yeah, you could say it's a passion of mine."

"You'd get along with my mom. She loves to cook too. She's the best," Wyatt beamed.

"Oh really? It's always nice to know guys who admire their parents … Sorry if I keep doing that – I've just known a lot of bad boys," Debbie sighed.

"It's okay – in fact, maybe it's time that you got to know a good guy?"

"Well, I certainly hope so," she smiled as their eyes met. The toaster_ ding_ed, drawing her eyes away from Wyatt's as she packed up the bagel into a paper bag. "A toasted cheese and bacon bagel – with a bit of cheese and chive spread for an added kick. Oh!" she opened the fridge door and whipped something out of it, placing it on the counter, "and a carton of orange juice."

"Very breakfasty," Wyatt smiled, paying for the bagel and juice. "So, I guess I'll see you around."

"Yeah. See you around."

Wyatt walked back towards the shop with a large smile across his face as he felt Debbie's gaze follow him to the door. He stepped into the shop and removed the sign he had put up minutes before. Sitting down at his desk, Wyatt tore into the paper bag to retrieve his new breakfast. He took a bite out of the bagel and sighed with delight as the flavours washed over his tongue. Wyatt glanced over at Debbie once more and noticed she was busying herself with preparing the food cart for business. He set the bagel down and reached for his pen and paper, writing a message onto the paper scrap. He motioned his hand in an effort to make the paper disappear then suddenly stopped himself. He hesitated. He knew it was wrong, but this was a now-or-never situation... Finally he gave into his desire and waved his fingers, making the piece of paper disappear in a wave of dim lights and reappear on the food cart.

Debbie stood up from rearranging the contents of the fridge to see the piece of paper on the worktop. She picked it up and smiled as she read the message written on it:

"_Thank you, Debbie x  
- Wyatt"_

Debbie laughed as she saw Wyatt's cell phone number written on the back of the note. She glanced over to Wyatt sitting at his desk and found him already looking at her. "_How?"_ she mouthed.

_"Magic," _ Wyatt mouthed back with a smile.

Debbie turned away from Wyatt and brushed her hair over her face to hide the beaming smile she was wearing. She continued with her food cart preparations, but not before slipping Wyatt's note into her pocket.

* * *

The brightly lit rooms of Magic School seemed to wear heavy on Melinda as she sat in a room with the other dozen students who made up the Magic School Student Committee. She sat with her face slumped in her palm, barely paying attention to the meeting at hand. The discussion was about how the next academic year at could be made more interactive and '_fun'_.

"Melinda!" Leo said cheerfully, startling his boredom-stricken daughter, "any ideas you'd like to share?"

"Melinda's been as useful as a Fairy against a Fireball," a voice cut across. The voice belonged to Doug Truman, a male witch and member of the Committee, "It was her amazing idea to practice the summoning and conjuring spells in class – and look what happened there! A lion on the loose in the school isn't what most people call _fun_."

"At least I had the balls to conjure something dangerous like that lion! What did you conjure? A flamingo? Real freakin' adventurous there!" Melinda snapped back.

"Now, now." Leo said, raising his hand slightly, "Doug, while your opinion is duly noted, I was asking Melinda of her opinions on the subject matter and not yours," Leo turned to Melinda and smiled, "Anything you'd like to suggest, Mel?"

Melinda smiled at her over-protective father and said, "Well, I do have a few ... Instead of trying to cram every ounce of magical knowledge into every student I think that the lessons should be tailored to the individual student's needs. Like, having students with passive powers learn to master and appreciate their own gifts before trying to emulate the more active-oriented powers that other students have. I know how jealous I used to be of my brothers when they could fling demons everywhere and all I could do was stop them in their tracks. Also, maybe having more guest visits and lectures from people with related gifts – say, a student with the power to control plant life could gain experience from working with Nymphs … things like that. I mean, my power to freeze time would have been difficult to master if I hadn't had mom to help me with it for all these years – I couldn't exactly get Tempus to help me with it; and my exploding power has caused some mayhem in the past … yeah, sorry about Graduation … " Melinda smiled nervously and rolled her eyes, "But mom has been able to help me control it some more. Maybe having more simulations of situations against evil and saving innocents could stir up enough enthusiasm from the students, since they'd be more involved with the magic and the problems of everyday life, should an innocent need saving or a demon need vanquishing." Melinda cast her gaze back to the rest of the Committee who were in utter silence staring at her - some open-mouthed. " … What?"

The sound of a bell ringing echoed across Magic School. "Alex," Leo said, pointing at another male-witch who was controlling a feathered pen with his fingers, quickly writing on a piece of long parchment, "did you get all that?"

"Yes, sir," the witch replied.

"Good, good. Right then, the session is over - you're all dismissed. Go and get some lunch," Leo instructed.

As the rest of the Committee left the room Leo moved over to his still-sitting daughter. "Melinda?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the matter, honey?" Leo asked, sitting next to Melinda. "… You don't want to be here, do you?"

"It's not that I don't want to be here …" Melinda began. Leo raised an eyebrow, "Okay, maybe I don't really want to be here anymore. The thing is … I'm not sure what I want at the minute. I think I just need to find myself. I mean, Wyatt has the book store, mom has the restaurant, you have Magic School and Chris … well … Chris is a bum."

Leo laughed. "You just need your own space - I understand. I'll tell you what. How about I find someone to take your place on the Committee? Then you'll have the time to do whatever you need to find your own place in the world."

Melinda's face lit up. "You mean it?"

"Of course," Leo said, drawing his daughter into a hug.

"Thanks, dad."

"No problem," Leo said, kissing the top of Melinda's head before releasing her from the embrace. "Why don't you go home and see your mom? It's her day off after all."

"Only because you make her take days off," Mel chuckled.

"Well, you know your mother. She loves that Restaurant so much it might just be the death of her," Leo said, smiling back at Melinda, "Anyway, I have some _wonderful_ paperwork I have to take care of. I'll see you later, honey." Leo kissed Melinda on the head again and then left the room.

Melinda picked up her things and followed her father's footsteps across the classroom and into the hallway. She quickly looked around for any signs of student life in the corridor. Finding none, she returned her gaze to the classroom door she had just walked through. Melinda flicked her fingers forwards from her palm and a spark of fire and smoke burst outwards from the wooden door, forcing it to swing backwards until it slammed shut. With a mischievous smile across her lips, Melinda headed down the empty hallway and made her way home.

* * *

A swirl of dark orbs descended from the sky as Chris faded into view. The sun shone brightly as he stood in front of a small stone structure that had steps leading up to a gated entrance. Chris looked around him and saw the rows upon rows of grave stones that lined the area around him.

Chris' attention returned to the stone structure. He moved towards it and stood on the first stone step. As his foot made contact, a circular wall of a pink light that encased the stone building barred his way and made him stumble backwards. His eyes flashed black and he flung his arms out before him, forcing his will upon the light. At first, the wall of pink light stood firm but as Chris strained his mind and push forwards, the light began to bubble inwards towards the building's gated entrance at the strength of Chris' invisible will. The witch's arms trembled furiously against the resistance of the wall of light in front of him. Finally, the pink light bounced back against Chris' power, launching him backwards away from the structure. Chris picked himself up off of the overgrown grassy floor as his eyes flashed black once again.

"You've won this time, Astrid. But I'll be back," Chris said in a deep, echoing voice before he disappeared in a mass of spiralling black spheres.

* * *

**Author's Note: PLEASE leave a review! :)**


	3. The Darkness Within

**Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of its established characters. Any non-canon characters and situations are of my own creation.**

* * *

**Episode 1x01:  
**"With a Shadow of a Doubt"

Chris stood in the attic in front of the Book of Shadows. His hand hovered over the open tome and he occasionally flicked his fingers to telekinetically move the pages. His eyes poured over the knowledge open in front of him, desperately searching for something. Chris' gaze was ripped away from the book as he heard footsteps grow louder and louder from beyond the Attic doorway. The footsteps stopped and Attic door opened to reveal his smiling mother.

"Aha! There you are," Piper exclaimed happily, "I thought you'd be up here. Since you're doing less than nothing today, would you mind giving me hand delivering my cookies to P3? I've got a hundred things to do… Oh, and don't tell your father I've been working – I'm supposed to be taking a day off," Piper ceased her rambling and shot Chris an inquisitive look. "… Are you looking for something in the Book?"

"Oh, no," Chris said, suddenly moving back from the book and flipping it closed with a wave of his fingers, "just passing the time."

"Speaking of passing the time… Cookies?" Piper said as she gave her son a cheeky grin.

"Yeah, sure thing. I'll be down in a minute."

"Okay then," Piper smiled. She turned on her heel and left the Attic, making her way down the stairs before moving out of sight.

A sly smile formed on Chris' lips as a thought sparked in his mind. He moved his hand over the Book of Shadows and it opened once more. The book fell open on the desired page and Chris followed the text on the page with hovering fingers. He quickly scanned the information on the page before his fingers came to a stop. His smile broadened and he focused his sight on where Piper had exited the attic just a moment before.

"Matriarch…" Chris said in a deep and husky voice. The Book of Shadows slammed shut and Chris' body burst into a spiral of black orbs before fading from view.

The male-witch reappeared in the darkened basement. He scowled at the light pouring into the room from the open door at the back room and waved his hand to force it shut. He sighed in delight, stretching his muscles and breathing in heavily as the darkness engulfed him. Chris turned to face his neatly made bed and snaked his arm under his pillow, clasping the hilt of the athamé he had hidden there hours before. He withdrew the weapon from its hiding place and slipped it up his sleeve. Focusing his sight on the steps up to the kitchen, Chris slowly made his way up the stairs to the still-open door leading into the kitchen.

Chris entered the kitchen and saw his target. Piper stood in next to the fridge with her back to him wearing oven mitts and holding something in front of her. Chris made his move and crept towards her silently.

Piper turned around, jumped in surprise and let out an ear-piercing scream. "You scared the crap out of me," she said, laying the hot tray of freshly baked cookies on the counter in front of her and placing a mitten-covered hand on her chest as she breathed heavily. "If any cookies had fallen on the floor, I'd've killed you," Piper joked, removing the oven mitts from her hands.

"_**You**_ won't be killing anyone," Chris replied in the dark, throaty voice as he stared into his mother's eyes.

"Chris?" Piper eyed her son inquisitively; "are you alr-" her sentence was cut short as the breath was ripped from her lungs. She looked down at the blade sticking into her gut and the blood seeping onto her clothes. Piper clutched her stomach as Chris forcefully withdrew the athamé from his mother's body. She began to shake as she leaned back against the counter behind her, slowly sliding down to the floor. She looked up to the looming figure of her son with tears forming in her eyes.

The male witch brought the blood-caked blade to his face and laughed at the image of a teary-eyed and frantic Chris in the reflection of the blade's metallic surface. "Oh, would you look at that? You just killed your mother," 'Chris' said, smiling in delight at the misery of the broken witch who screamed at him from the weapon's reflection.

* * *

An arched door faded into sight on the bottom half-landing up the past the first dozen steps of the Halliwell Manor staircase. The door swung open and out stepped a smiling Melinda. She raced down the few steps before her and made her way across the airy dining room. As she stood before the door into the kitchen she heard a thick, echoing voice:

_"Oh, would you look at that? You just killed your mother."_

Melinda stepped through the open kitchen doorway and her bright smile dissolved. "Chris?" she said, seeing her brother standing over their mother who was slumped on the floor. Her brother spun around and she noticed a bloodied weapon in his hand. Chris growled and raised his arm and motioned to throw the athamé at his sister. Melinda screamed and instinctively threw out her hands. She stood still, amazed by what she saw. The room was frozen still – but so was her brother. Her face was laden with confusion and despair. With a flick of her wrist she carefully unfroze Chris' head. "Chris, what the hell did you do?" she screamed, her eyes darting between the weapon in her brother's hands and the wound in her mother's body.

The male witch's head moved from side to side in an attempt to break free from the magical containment. "Release me, _**witch**_!" Chris exclaimed, his echoing voice confusing Melinda further. The white-lighter's face darkened and his eyes flashed pitched black as focused beams of dark, smoky energy streamed towards Melinda.

The young witch flicked her fingers forward and the dark power was met head on with a burst of explosive energy. She was flung backwards through the kitchen door as the collision of magical power erupted in front of her. The dark energy exploded outwards and filled the room with a thick, black smoke. Chris' hand began to move slowly, still gripping the blood-drenched athamé, as his sister's magical freeze rapidly began to wear off. Melinda steadied herself and stumbled to the kitchen door, covering her mouth and coughing as the smoke tried to fill her lungs. She looked up to see the dark yet unmistakable blur of her brother break free of her magical hold. Melinda readied her hands but Chris' body swiftly morphed into a flurry of dark, swirling orbs and disappeared upwards as a trail of thick, black smoke followed him, clearing the room of the magical darkness.

"Mom?" Melinda said softly as she hurried over to her mother and slumped to her knees. "Mom?" she exclaimed again, tears streaming from her eyes. "It's gonna be okay – It's gonna be okay!" She held her mother's hands and looked upwards, "WYATT! Mom's hurt! She really needs you!" Melinda let go of one of Piper's hands and flicked out her fingers repeatedly. "I can't even stop the bleeding! _– I can't stop the bleeding!_" the young witch cried, burying her head into her mother's slumped shoulder.

* * *

The sound of a bell ringing and the shop door opening drew Wyatt's attention away from the books he was scanning. The door swung to a close and a tall, dark-haired and smartly-dressed man approached Wyatt at the desk.

"Hey there. I phoned earlier and reserved a copy of a book."

"Oh, yeah. I have it right here, _Black and White Magic: Through the Ages_," Wyatt said, retrieving the book from a drawer next to him. He scanned the book and packaged it into a paper bag. "That'll be ten ninety-nine."

The customer paid for the book and looked down at the watch on his wrist. "Gah, time really isn't on my side today." As the man talked, mostly to himself, Wyatt noticed that he had a long, thin scar that ran down the left side of his neck. "Right - I'd best be off now. Thanks for the reservation," he a said, picking up the paper bag and smiling.

"No problem. Take care now," Wyatt replied.

No sooner had the bell rang once again and the door close behind the male customer did a loud voice invade Wyatt's mind.

"_WYATT!"_ the witch jumped with fright at the sudden boom of his sister's voice that echoed in his mind. _"Mom's hurt! She really needs you!"_ Wyatt moved to the front of the shop and re-taped the 'Be back in 5 minutes' note he had written earlier in the day to the door. He locked it, slipped the key into his pocket and swiftly headed to the 'Staff Only' part of the store. "_I can't even stop the bleeding! – I can't stop the bleeding!" _His sister's dire words forced him to move quickly. He stepped into the Staff Toilets and locked the door behind him before disappearing in a shower of white and blue lights.

* * *

Wyatt reappeared in the kitchen behind his crying sister. "Melinda? What happened?"

"Heal now, questions later," she quipped, motioning to their bleeding mother.

Wyatt knelt down besides Piper and hovered a glowing hand over her wound. "What happened?"

"Chris stabbed her-"

"WHAT?"

"But," Melinda continued, "I don't think it was really Chris. I mean, why would he attack mom? And he used these weird powers-"

"What kind of powers?" Wyatt cut across.

"He shot these dark beams from his eyes – I've never seen anything like it before. Then he orbed out like a darklighter." She glanced over her brother's shoulder to see her mother's clothes still bloodied. "What's taking so long?"

"Don't worry – she's almost there," Wyatt replied, calming his sister's nerves. The blood on Piper's body slowly faded from her clothes as the wound in her gut finally knitted together.

Piper opened her eyes and was greeted by her son's smiling face. "W-Wyatt?"

"It's okay, mom. You're okay now," he said as he and Melinda helped their mother to her feet. "Melinda," he turned to his sister, "will you be okay to look after Mom – in case Chris comes back? I have to head back to the store."

"What? Wyatt, you can't leave now! Mom was just attacked by our dark-powered brother who's orbing around doing God-knows-what!" Melinda objected.

"I know that, and as much as I'd really like to help, I have a responsibility to my do my job. I can't just drop everything that I'm doing every time something evil interrupts our lives. You focus on whatever the hell's going on with Chris and I'll focus on bringing money into the household." He turned to his mother and gave Piper a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He said before disappearing in a whirl of lights.

"Are you okay?" Melinda asked, bringing Piper into tight embrace.

"Yeah, I'm fine – just a little shaken up … Chris was acting a little weird today … well, weirder than usual… and I just couldn't put my finger on it. I had no idea he wanted to-"

"Mom – Chris would never hurt you, you know that!" Melinda stressed.

"Yeah, I know… I just… I should have known something was wrong. I'm his mother for God's sake," Piper sighed.

"You can't be right all the time, mom. Now, let's run through all that's happened today with Chris and hope we can figure this mess out." Melinda suggested as she prepared Piper a cup of coffee.

* * *

The book store bathroom was filled with spinning lights before Wyatt materialised into view. He reached out for the bathroom lock but stopped himself suddenly. Something was wrong. He closed his eyes and focused for a moment to sense the surrounding area. His eyes shot open in realisation: someone was in the shop. Following his instincts, Wyatt moved to the toilet, flushed it and then washed his hands in the sink. After drying his hands he unlocked the door and slowly opened it, trying to avoid any creaking sounds. He slipped through the door and tip-toed his way to the door that lead into the front of the shop. Wyatt noticed that his sign had been removed from the front door and that a man dressed in the same attire as him at his front desk.

"Oh, hey Todd," the young witch said to his manager, "I didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, I'm like a ninja." Todd smiled, "Where were you?"

"Oh, I've been feeling a bit off all morning. It must've been something I ate," Wyatt lied, holding back a smile, "so I just put that message up on the door while I was in the bathroom."

"You're a real trooper, you know that, Wyatt? I mean, you've catalogued the entire delivery in the majority of a single shift while fighting through being ill. Hell, I couldn't've finished all that cataloguing in the same time frame – I don't know how you do it. Don't think your hard work doesn't go unnoticed here, Wyatt. You're an asset to this store."

"Gee, thanks Todd."

"No thanks needed for the truth. I tell you what, if you're still feeling off why don't you take the afternoon off?"

"Really?" Wyatt asked, taken aback.

"Of course. You covered for me this morning so let me cover for you now."

"Uh… Okay – if you think I should. But before I do," Wyatt slipped in between the store shelves and picked out a book, "I'll have this," he said, moving to the front desk and pulling out his wallet.

"_Black and White Magic: Through the Ages_…" Todd raised an eyebrow, "You're into this kind of stuff?"

"Not _into_ it, per se. I just find it fascinating."

"Alright then, that'll be seven ninety-nine."

"You gave me discount?" Wyatt asked.

"Yes."

"But I never take the discount," the whitelighter argued.

"I know you don't – and that's your problem, Wyatt, you're too generous. If you added up the all of the discounts that you haven't taken that book would pay for itself ten times over. Now, take the damn discount and take afternoon off. Go home already," the manager smiled.

"Thank you," Wyatt replied as he handed over the money in exchange for the book.

"No problem. You take care now," Todd said, almost verbally shooing his colleague out of the store.

Wyatt left the shop and walked towards the mall exit. He looked back and saw Debbie frantically serving customers at her food stand. He smiled to himself before turning to the exit and making his way to his car.

* * *

Black swirls drifted through the sky before settling in front of a small stone building surrounded by gravestones in every direction. As Chris eased into sight, a thick, black tornado of smoke furiously spiralled around him. He threw out his arms either side of him and cast out the smoke in all directions, shrouding the cemetery in a dense fog.

He set his gaze on the structure before him and walked forward to the steps that lead up to its gated entrance. Chris gripped the athamé tightly and jammed the blade into the earth before the steps. The barrier around the structure flashed a strong pink and then dimmed. The young witch forced his hands forward and pushed on the wall of light with his mind. Once again the shield bubbled inwards against Chris' invisible will. He focused his power, straining his body against the magical resistance. As Chris pushed against the wall he noticed a hole form in the barrier. Excited, the witch pushed harder still, wanting nothing more than to break through the wall that stood between him and his prize. His body began to shake, struggling to keep up with the amount of magical power needed break through the building's magical defences. Chris' arms relaxed, not able to keep up with the strain of maintaining his magic and the barrier rebounded against him, knocking him flying backwards and landing with a _thud_ in the long grass once again.

He got to his feet, his face twisted with anger and frustration, and motioned the athamé to him, telekinetically ripping it from the ground and catching it by the handle. "Damn it, Astrid! You're _**not**_ making this easy." He growled before disappearing in a spiral of black orbs.

* * *

The Halliwell Manor fell quiet as Piper and Melinda were sat at the kitchen table thinking over cups of coffee.

"So… what exactly happened while I was out of it?" Piper asked her daughter.

"I don't know how long you were unconscious for. I came home from Magic School, made my way into the kitchen and there you were on the floor with him standing over you."

"I must have not been out that long then if he hadn't left by the time you walked in."

"Thankfully. But, what really worries me is what happened after I walked in. I called his name, he turned around and went to throw the blade at me and I jumped and froze the room. But the thing is that Chris was frozen too… he was evil." Melinda sighed, drinking a mouthful of coffee, "I unfroze his head and asked him what the hell was going on… and then he attacked me with a power that Chris doesn't have."

"What kind of power?" Piper asked.

"He fired black energy beams from his eyes. I blocked it by exploding them and then the room was covered in this thick smoke. He unfroze fully and then orbed out like a Darklighter taking the smoke with him."

"Hmm… This doesn't make any sense. No possesser demon has that kind of power," Piper pondered.

"You think he was possessed?"

"I really, really hope so, Melinda," the mother witch answered.

"So – rewind. Run through everything that happened with you and Chris this morning."

"Well," Piper began, "I was cooking and Chris came out of his bedroom. We talked, watched the news and after I turned the oven on I looked up and he was gone. Later, I found him in the attic looking at the Book of Shadows. I asked him to help me deliver some cookies to the club and he said he'd be down in a minute. I came down to the kitchen and started to move the stuff when all of a sudden he's behind me, scaring me to death. Then there's an athamé in my gut."

"Did he speak in a weird voice by any chance? Sort of … dark and echoey?" Melinda asked.

"Yeah, twice actually - once this morning and then again before he stabbed me."

"What about this morning after the earthquake stopped? Did you speak to him then?"

"Ah, that's right – the earthquake. I went down to see him and he was already up. He said he was fine."

"I wonder what all this points to. The earthquake, new powers, weird voices and Chris trying to kill you and catching you offguard… how exactly did he do that? You're not the easiest person to surprise," asked Melinda.

"I didn't hear him come into the kitchen – and you know how involved I get with my food."

"Maybe he orbed in behind you?" Melinda suggested.

"I don't think so. I can usually sense Wyatt and Chris' presence when they orb near me. Motherly instincts," her gaze was drawn to the open basement door, "he must have sneaked out of the basement – those stairs barely make a sound." Something clicked in her mind. "Ah, crap."

"What is it, mom?"

"If this is what I think this is then we're potentially screwed," Piper said getting up from the table. "But before I jump to any conclusions I have to check one thing." The mother witch moved through the open basement door and flicked on the light switch on the wall next to her. She made her way down the basement stairs peered into the huge illuminated room. "Yep! Definitely crap!"

Melinda followed her mother down the steps. "What's wrong?"

"You see that gaping crack in the floor? That was also there twenty seven years ago when an earthquake released the Woogyman who possessed your Aunt Phoebe and took over control of the Manor."

"You think that the earthquake this morning released the Woogy again and it possessed Chris?"

"Precisely!"

"But… I thought that the Woogyman was vanquished when you destroyed the Nexus?"

"That's what I thought too," Piper replied, "but unfortunately for us that doesn't seem to be the case."

"What about that earthquake a few years ago? Why wasn't the Woogy released then?"

"My best guess is that the earthquake a few years ago just wasn't powerful enough. It was only a three-point-two while today's was a four-point-seven. Magic can only go against Mother Nature for so long. Come on, we need to sort this out." Melinda and her mother ran up the basement stairs and stepped into the kitchen. The sound of the front door to the house echoed through the manor and a familiar voice called out.

_"Mom! Melinda! I'm home."_

The two female witches moved out of the kitchen and made their way across the dining room to meet their new arrival.

"Wyatt! You're home early," Melinda noted.

"Yeah, my boss let me have the afternoon off-"

"That's handy," Piper quipped.

"Yes, but he almost caught me using magic. I had to orb back to the store, remember? Thankfully I'd orbed from the staff bathroom so he didn't see me, but I had to lie about feeling ill all day." Wyatt suddenly shot his gaze upward.

"Now that you're here: we think the W-" Piper began.

"Ssh!" Wyatt cut across. He closed his eyes and focused for a moment before opening his eyes again. "He's here." The young whitelighter disappeared in a shower of bright lights.

Melinda shot her mother a confused look before the two of them began climbing the stairs.

Wyatt reappeared in the Attic to find his brother pouring over the Book of Shadows. "Chris?" Chris' head snapped upwards and he fixed his gaze on his older brother.

"Hmm, you'll do perfectly," Chris hissed before moving over towards his brother.

"Chris, I don't want to hurt you," Wyatt said, extending his arm out defensively.

The younger witch let out a sinister laugh, "You won't have a choice." Chris' eyes began to pulsate with a dark aura and streams of billowing, black smoke were ripped from his eyes and open mouth. The streams twisted and converged in mid air before swiftly engulfing Wyatt whole. The darkness seeped into Wyatt's body and his features changed: his hair grew dark, matching facial hair sprouted along his jaw line, under his nose and chin and his eyes oozed with an evil, black power.

_"Wyatt?" _Piper called from the floor below.

The limp, seemingly lifeless body of the younger whitelighter fell to the attic floor. Wyatt smirked and opened his palm. The athamé that Chris held moved to Wyatt's open hand in a swirl of dark orbs before he too disappeared from the room in a display of spiralling darkness.

Piper and Melinda quickly moved up the remaining stairs and into the attic to see Chris sprawled on the floor. "Chris?" Piper exclaimed, kneeling down by her son as she tried to wake him up.

"But what if he's still evil?" Melinda asked.

"Well there's only one way to find out," Piper flicked out her hands and froze the room in place and examined Chris' chest, "he's still breathing - our power doesn't affect good witches so he must be okay." She gently rocked her son's shoulder in an attempt to wake him up. "Chris? Chris? Come on, kiddo, wake up."

Chris groaned and gradually opened his eyes. "Mom!" he said, surprised. He threw his arms around her and hugged her tight. "Mom, I'm so sorry. I couldn't stop it."

"It's okay, honey. You can thank your brother and sister for fixing me up. Speaking of Wyatt – where'd he go?"

"He took him…" Chris said as he picked himself off of the floor.

"Hold on a second. Chris, please orb," Melinda chimed in, unconvinced of her brother's sincerity.

"Melinda, I-"

"Just do it!" the youngest witch commanded. Chris sighed, disappearing and reappearing in a shower of twirling white and blue lights. "Oh, Chris, I'm sorry," she dived on her brother and tightly clamped her arms around him, "I just had to double check."

"It's okay, Mel. I know I haven't done the most trustworthy things today," he said, freeing himself from his sister's embrace, "but now we have to figure out whatever the hell is going on. I think I was possessed by the Woogyman."

"No crap, Sherlock," Piper gave an annoyed laugh, "we're one step ahead of you there. But Chris, seriously, did I teach you nothing? How could you not know that some big scary shadow demon thing was trying to possess you?"

"Are you _really_ blaming me for all that's happened today? Excuse me for not instantly knowing that a demon that _**you**_ told us had been vanquished _years_ ago was trying to use me for its own ends!"

"Can it!" Melinda interjected, pointing a finger at Chris and Piper. "We need to figure out what the Woogy wants with Wyatt. Bickering like this is _not_ going to help," She turned to her brother, "Chris, do you remember anything that happened today while you were possessed?"

"Not much. I remember hurting mom - he made sure I'd remember that… but other than that I don't remember much… however, I do vaguely remember a cemetery with some small building in it. Other than that there's not much to tell."

"Hmm, that isn't much to go on. We could scry for him?" Melinda suggested.

"No – going in there without a plan could be bad. We need to know what we're up against," Piper said, walking over to a cupboard and pulling out some candles, "and I think I know someone who will know a few more things than we do."

She set the five candles into a loose circle on the floor and said:

_"Hear these words,  
Hear my cry,  
Spirit from the other side,  
Come to me, I summon thee,  
Cross now the Great Divide."_

A gentle wind blew within the Attic and a beacon of bright light shone outwards from within the candle circle. Sparkling lights danced around the funnel of white and soon enough a familiar face stepped out from beyond the other side.

"Piper?" Grams asked as she looked around the attic, "Melinda and Chris too? Oh it's so good to see you!" she said as she tightly embraced her two great-grandchildren. "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you all?"

"Unfortunately, Grams, we need to skip the pleasantries this time. We need you to tell us everything you know about the Woogyman."

* * *

Author's Note: Please leave a review!


	4. Astrid and the Shadow

**Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of its established characters. Any non-canon characters and situations are of my own creation.**

**Author's Note: I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. My computer broke for a while and I was unable to write =[**

* * *

**Episode 1x01:  
**"With a Shadow of a Doubt"

Grams' held her hand to her chin as she paced around the attic deep in thought. She opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, much to Piper's annoyance.

"Come on, Grams! You must know _something_about the Woogyman! Wyatt could be in danger," she urged.

"I know, Piper. I'm just trying to remember everything that happened that night when I banished the Shadow in the basement. It was a long time ago."

"Well remember quicker!"

"Mom - why don't you tell us everything that happened when you banished the shadow? Maybe it'll jog Grams' memory?" Chris suggested.

Piper sighed. "Okay. There was an earthquake that day. The appliances didn't really work and I was frantically trying to make a dinner for Prue's boss ... We called a gas engineer to take a look at the basement and the Shadow possessed him and later Phoebe… Phoebe got new powers and teamed up with the Manor itself to throw out me and Prue. We sneaked back into the Manor and tried to remember Grams' rhyme from when we were kids … but we failed miserably and Phoebe was the only one who ever remembered it off by heart," Grams tutted in the background, "then we went into the basement to face the Woogyman. Phoebe was strong enough to fight against it and then banished it back to wherever the hell it came from with Grams' rhyme."

"There was also an earthquake the night I banished it," Grams commented.

"Yeah, Grams, we've kind of already figured that's how it gets out. What else do you remember?" Piper hurried her grandmother.

"Well, soon after the earthquake began I slipped you and Prue a potion so you would sleep through the ordeal, but when I went to give it to Phoebe she was nowhere to be seen. I headed downstairs and I heard an almighty smash. A moment later Phoebe was screaming, saying she'd seen something in the basement. I humoured her and went down into the basement and sure enough there was the Woogyman, slithering all over the floor."

"Something broke?" Melinda asked.

"Yes. After I'd banished the Shadow and gotten Phoebe sound asleep I checked the basement again and found that my mother's urn had fallen off a table and shattered behind a number of boxes of junk that were down there at the time. It's a shame it broke, it was a beautiful thing."

"Was this Urn special in any way, Grams?" Chris asked.

Grams stopped for a second and the ends of her lips curled into a slight smile, "Now that you mention it… I do remember something about that Urn. My mother warned me that bad people were trying to steal it from our family. She was taking care of it for a while most likely to keep its location hidden from the thieves."

"That's a nice tale you have there, Grams, but how is this going to help us find Wyatt and the Woogy?" Piper said, frustrated.

"Think about it, mom," Chris began, turning to Grams, "you said Phoebe screamed after the Urn smashed?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Well – what if Phoebe heard the smash too and went into the basement to see what had broken only to find the Woogyman in the basement?"

"I don't see where you're going with this, Chris," Piper raised an eyebrow.

"Well it begs the question: where did the Woogyman come from?" Chris eyed his family with a proud smile forming on his face, "Maybe, just maybe, the Shadow actually came out of the smashed urn?"

"Hiding a powerful demon in your own living room? Doesn't that seem a bit risky?" Piper said, almost laughing at the prospect.

"That would explain why '_bad people'_ would want to steal the Urn from my mother – in order to release a powerful demon from captivity from Warren witches? It'd be the talk of the Underworld," Grams noted.

"Until killing the Charmed Ones became the new best thing," Piper interjected. Grams slapped her lightly on the arm.

"However, we know in this family that '_bad people'_ is always codename for _evil_," Melinda said, "but now that we've come to this conclusion – how does this help us? Unless we have still have a piece of it in the Manor?" Melinda asked, hopefully.

"Alas, no. I threw out the shattered pieces after the earthquake."

"You can magically replicate the Manor into a dollhouse but not fix together some ceramics?" Piper smirked.

"Oh, anything for my girls," Grams smiled. "Anyway, we need think of a plan to save Wyatt."

"But how?" Piper sighed, "all we've got to go on is the hopeful story of this urn releasing the Woogy – that doesn't help us much."

"On the contrary, mom - all we have to do is cross-reference magical Urns in the Book of Shadows and hey presto! We'll have a solution," Melinda beamed.

"Ever the optimist, aren't we? You definitely get that from your father," Piper smiled, "but the only problem is I've only ever come across one other urn in my entire witchy career and it sure as hell didn't house a shadow demon… I think I remember there being another urn in the Book of Shadows, however," Piper turned on her heel and walked over towards the ancient Halliwell tome, "it's gotta be in here somewhere…" she muttered to herself as she rapidly skimming through the pages of the book, "aha! Here it is: the Lumen Urn – does this look familiar, Grams?"

Grams' hopeful smile dissipated as she gazed upon the page Piper was referring to, "I'm afraid not, Piper. My mother's urn was blue." Silence fell across the attic.

"…I have an idea," Melinda began, "what if we could summon the person who made the urn by focusing on Grams' memories of it?"

"But, Melinda, the crafter of the urn is probably long dead," Grams said.

"Grams, _you're_ dead and you're right here with us."

Grams nodded in sudden agreement, "Point taken, Melinda. Let's do it!" she smiled, "Okay – Piper, you re-light the candles for the summoning and I'll get working on a spell."

"A spell?" Melinda looked confused, "but don't we already have a spell to summon a spirit from the dead in the Book of Shadows?"

"Yes, but that only worked because Piper knew who she wanted to summon. We have no idea who made my mother's urn, so we'll have to be more specific," Grams explained.

Piper retrieved a match and struck it against its box, igniting the match flame and used it to re-light the candle circle. "Are we even sure of what we're doing? This could potentially lead us nowhere and we'd have wasted precious time – time we could be using to track down Wyatt."

"You worry too much, mom. Have a little faith. We'll find him and bring him back home," Chris said, smiling.

Piper couldn't help but smile back, "Okay then, let's do this. Grams, have you thought of a spell?"

"Of course," Grams smiled smugly, "now, we should make a circle around the candles and join hands." The four witches joined hands around the circle of candles as Grams closed her eyes and began:

"_Memories inside my mind,  
Cross now the Great Divide,  
Reveal to us the hidden truth,  
Of the maker of the Urn,  
From my long-gone youth."_

A dazzling flurry of sparking lights burst forth from the centre of the candle circle as a blurred figure came into view. The figure was that of an aged woman with short, blonde hair who was dressed in a long, flowing dark green velvet dress with fur lined around her collar with a pair of golden-rimmed pince-nez spectacles that fit snugly on her nose. As the lights faded the Halliwell witches broke their hand-bound circle and stared at her with awe.

She beamed at the family, "And what can I do for the four of you?"

Temporary silence swept over the attic before Melinda spoke, "Um … who are you?"

"You summoned me without knowing who I am? Ha!" she laughed, "my name is Astrid – Astrid Bowen."

Piper stood with her mouth open, aghast, "You're part of our family? By the looks of it I thought we'd summoned you from Cruella de Vil's wardrobe."

Astrid seemed confused but looked down to see her luxurious clothing and smiled, "Well, my dear, with all of the evil and demons running about our lives you have to find _some_ way of enjoying yourself." Piper smiled. Astrid looked around the room and her smile broadened, "Is this the attic of the Manor?"

"It is indeed," Grams replied.

"Oh how things have changed! Just look at all of the potion ingredients, the vials, the crystals and-" she turned to see the Book of Shadows perched on its stand, "is that the Book of Shadows? Oh how it's grown!" she stepped out of the candlelit circle and crossed the room towards the tome. "I never imagined it'd get so big!" Her broad smile instantly disappeared when she saw which page that the Book of Shadows was open to. "W-w-why is this page open?" she asked, her voice now trembling slightly. The other four witches looked at each other confused.

"The urn?" Grams asked, "well, my grandson, their brother and son," she said, motioning to Piper, Chris and Melinda, "has been possessed by a shadow demon who we think came out of my mother's broken urn. But we ruled the urn from the Book because my mother's urn was blue and not white."

"Can I ask your mother's name?"

"Her name was Priscilla – Priscilla Baxter."

Astrid's face lit up, "Oh, dear Priscilla! She was a wonderful witch. She and my daughter made a wonderful team."

"Who was your daughter?" asked Melinda.

"Phoebe Bowen."

"Prue's past life…" Piper muttered.

"I entrusted her and Priscilla to look after the urn while I was away."

"But we've already ruled out the urn from the Book because it's not the right colour," Chris said.

"Do you people not even _read_ this Book? Or do you just like to look at the pretty pictures?" Astrid said in frustration, "It clearly says here on the page that I cast Umbris' demonic essence – the shadow – into the Lumen Urn where it would be imprisoned. You say you think a shadow demon came out of a broken urn? Do you think you could possibly put two and two together and realise they're one in the same?" the frustrated witch said, furiously tapping the pages of the Book of Shadows, which read:

_Umbris is an immensely powerful Upper Level Demon who thrives in the Darkness._

_He has a variety of terrifying powers that include:_

_- the ability to move through any darkness or shadow_  
_- possessing beings by corrupting their souls and he can imbue his own powers into the possessed_  
_- creating bursts of black energy - he can also use this power to suffocate his victims_  
_- conjuring any object from his own dark will_  
_- moving objects with his mind_  
_- reforming his damaged body out of shadows and darkness._

_I, Astrid Bowen, could not vanquish the evil that is Umbris._  
_He wished to consume the Nexus underneath the Manor to gain untold power, possibly enough to rival the Source._  
_Instead, I separated his demonic essence from his body using a potion. _

"Hmm…" Grams said with her hand to her chin, "maybe my mother and Phoebe magically altered its appearance? My mother told me as a child that bad people were trying to steal the urn from them. In my innocence I just assumed it was worth a lot of money."

"And you said Priscilla's urn was blue?" Grams nodded, "Oh dear. That might explain how Umbris escaped."

"What do you mean, Astrid? Who's Umbris?" Melinda questioned.

"Umbris is the name of the demon whose essence I stripped, but he was so powerful that his essence was still a great threat. I think that if Priscilla and Phoebe did indeed alter its appearance it would explain how he was able to escape. The spell that I used to imprison Umbris' essence specifically referred to a white urn – but because the urn was later altered in colour, the spell was accidentally weakened, also weakening the urn's physical properties which were supposed to prevent it from breaking. How, exactly, did it break?"

"An earthquake," Piper said simply. Astrid sighed.

"Now, you'll have to stop Umbris before he fulfils his goals. He believed he was the abandoned twin of the Nexus beneath the Manor and he thought it was his destiny to unite what he believed was two halves of the same entity to become an unstoppable power. You must stop him from ever doing this!"

"There's, uh, a slight problem with that, Astrid … my sisters and I – the Charmed Ones – we destroyed the Nexus years ago-"

"You did what?"

"We had to! The demon Zankou had taken over the Manor and the only way to destroy him was to destroy him while he had taken in the Nexus." Piper said, "… Which begs the question, if the Shadow was trapped with the Nexus under the Manor why wasn't it destroyed along with Zankou?"

"Umbris' essence was trapped WITH the Nexus? Were you trying to get the whole world killed?" Astrid asked, aghast.

"I didn't know that the Shadow was after the Nexus at the time – all I wanted to do was protect my girls," Grams argued. "Anyway, I think I might have an explanation as to why this Umbris wasn't vanquished along with the Nexus. My powers didn't work against it and I had no time to think of a way to vanquish it, so I banished it under the Manor with a spell."

"So that spell was just designed to banish the shadow under the Manor? That would explain why when Leo took in the Nexus to fight against Zankou the spell worked and banished the Nexus back beneath the basement because it – much like Umbris' essence – is a glorified shadow or smoke or whatever the hell you wanna call it."

"The difference being that the Nexus was simply pure magical power, while Umbris is just evil," Astrid said.

"So," Grams continued, "both Umbris' essence and the Nexus had been banished underneath the Manor with my spell. Now, it'd be like being in jail – just because you're in the same jail doesn't necessarily mean that you'd be in the same cell, so when the Nexus was summoned out of its prison cell and then vanquished it wouldn't automatically mean that Umbris' was vanquished along with it."

"If that's how he remained alive and the Nexus is truly gone then Umbris must be working on a way to re-unite his essence with his body. You cannot let that happen!" Astrid urged.

"How can we find Umbris' body?" Melinda asked.

"Well it's a good thing I'm here to tell you," Astrid smiled proudly, "I hid his body in a nearby-"

"Mausoleum…" Chris said softly.

"Oh, you actually did read my entry in the Book of Shadows?" Astrid asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"No… I-I think he took me there – when I was possessed by him before. It was a small building in the middle of a cemetery surrounded by other grave stones…" Chris said, his eyes were fixed on the floor as he strained his memory, "he… he stepped towards it and a great barrier stopped him. He used my power to try and break through it but it stopped him again."

"What's your power, dear?" Astrid asked.

"I can move things with my mind."

"Oh my - we're lucky that the barrier I set up was so strong," Astrid said, "because Umbris also has that power. You essentially had two telekinetics against the shield."

"Just like when Prue accidentally conjured two clones of herself and her power tripled," Piper said.

"And the twins use their power together all the time," Melinda noted.

"The combined strength of both your identical powers could have broken through the barrier," Astrid voiced.

"But they didn't," Chris continued, "… because he… we… had to visit the mausoleum again after he'd stabbed mom… I remember him sticking the bloodied athamé in the ground by the barrier and it seemed to weaken, because he tried breaking through with our powers once again and he almost succeeded, but the barrier was still too much for him."

Astrid's face dropped. "He's used the blood of a Warren Matriarch to weaken the shield. This could be disastrous. Tell me – how powerful is your son?"

Piper smiled awkwardly. "Well … do you know the prophecy of the Twice-Blessed child?" the summoned witch nodded, "That'd be him…"

"… I'm really not sure if this situation could get any worse," Astrid said as she brought her palm to her face. A moment of silence settled over the attic.

"I'm gonna try and scry for him," Melinda suddenly announced, readying the scrying crystal and map.

"What good'll that do, Mel? Umbris is probably suppressing Wyatt's signal – and we don't even know how to stop him," Chris argued.

"Well I can't just stand here and do nothing, Chris! We need to work fast if we're going to save Wyatt! Besides, Umbris has had god-knows how much time to try and tap into Wyatt's powers – we need to find him before he becomes unstoppable."

* * *

Wyatt stood in the dank, fog-covered cemetery and set his gaze on the gated structure in front of him. He slowly stepped forwards but was nudged backwards by the sudden appearance of the barrier of pink light that surrounded the building. He held out his hand and concentrated… but nothing happened.

He held the bloodied athamé to his face and glared at the image of the confused witch in the blade's reflection. "Hmm, you don't have your brother's powers," the Woogy confirmed in his deep, husky voice, "tell me, witch, what are your powers? I know you have plenty of them." Wyatt stayed silent. "Fine. I'll just have to figure out how your powers work by myself."

As the Woogy finished speaking, a scream echoed across the graveyard from behind him. He spun around and saw that in the distance a curly-haired woman was being attacked by a group of three men, two clad in black suits and the third in a red suit. A blonde haired man had her restrained, holding her hands tightly behind her back; a second, bald man walked around the commotion in a circular path and the third man, who was clad in the dark red suit, was crouched over the woman with his face close to hers. He brought his hand between their heads and a ball of fire erupted from his palm. The tips of 'Wyatt's mouth curled up into sly smile. He carefully pocketed the bloodied athamé and his body burst into a swirl of black orbs as he faded from view. He reappeared a few yards away from the suited men.

The red-suited man who was crouched over in front of the distraught woman turned his head to face 'Wyatt' with a look of annoyance. He sighed and extinguished the ball of fire in his palm. "What do you want, Darklighter? You're not meant to be here," he said, straightening his poise. 'Wyatt's smile broadened.

The red-suited man nodded to the bald man who was walking around in circles. The walking man lunged for 'Wyatt', but the dark witch proved to be too much for the assailant as he held out his hand and a clean, new blade appeared in his palm in a puff of black smoke which was swiftly thrust into the oncoming man's heart. The demon stumbled backwards as he screamed in agony before quickly being consumed by a raging fire. The conjured athamé fell to the floor onto a pile of fresh demon dust.

"You're no Darklighter…" the red-suited demon said, his voice showing some element of concern.

"You've got that right," the Woogy replied.

The blonde man who had the crying woman restrained released his grip on her and shoved her to one side, focusing his attention on 'Wyatt'. The witch waved his hand over the athamé in the direction of the blond demon, consuming the blade in black orbs flew towards its intended target. It missed the demon by a good metre and instead it curved around him towards the innocent woman. She screamed out in pain as the blade flew by and sliced open her left shoulder. The demons smirked and ignited balls of fire in their hands. 'Wyatt' waved his hand towards himself and the dark-orbed athamé zipped through the air and thrust into the back of the blonde demon's shoulder. The demon cried out in pain and the flaming ball in his hands disappeared as he fell to his knees. The demon in the red suit launched the ball of fire in his palms at 'Wyatt' who jumped out of the way into a patch of long grass next to him. The blond man ripped the blade out of his back and threw it to the ground in anger.

The two men then rounded on 'Wyatt' and expelled powerful spheres of fire from their hands. He instinctively held up his hands over his face and watched in surprise as a dome of pulsing blue energy surrounded him and negated the oncoming demonic powers. The two demons looked equally surprised but continued their onslaught of fiery power, determined to break the protective shield. 'Wyatt' stood up and threw his arms out as the balls of fire made contact with the blue barrier. The force field expanded outwards and deflected the demonic energy back towards the demons, instantly vanquishing the blond man in a pillar of roaring fire and knocking the demon in the red suit flying backwards.

The demon picked himself up off of the floor and stumbled as he backed away from the oncoming witch, "What are you?" he asked, shaking.

"You are nothing but an insignificant whelp. But I – I am a force you'll never comprehend. I am the beginning of the end. I am POWER!" the Woogy answered as he extended Wyatt's arms forward and flicked his hands open. The demon was surrounded by a flurry of spiralling darkness as he doubled over in pain. He gave out a last loud scream as his body convulsed violently before exploding into a burst of black orbs.

The innocent woman stared at 'Wyatt' open-mouthed and frozen in fear. She suddenly got to her feet as the dark witch took a step towards her and she ran as fast as she could out of the cemetery, holding her bleeding shoulder as she ran.

'Wyatt' pulled the bloodied athamé from his pocket and grinned at the terrified reflection of his host, "I seem to be getting the hang of your powers pretty well," the Woogy jeered before disappearing from the scene in a swirl of blackness.

* * *

The loud sound of a door closing echoed through the house as a voice called out, "Honey? I'm home! Is anyone here?"

Piper smiled, "I'll go and get that," she turned to Astrid, "excuse me for one minute." She left the attic, headed down the stairs, crossed the landing and stood at the top of the stairs. "Welcome home," she said, smiling down at her husband who stood on the first half-landing of the staircase.

"Ah, there you are," Leo returned the smile, "…are you gonna come down?"

"Uh, no… there's a slight situation."

"That doesn't sound good," Leo said as he headed up the stairs. When he reached the landing he planted a firm kiss on his wife's lips. "How was your day off?"

"Ha… day off… yeah…" Piper grinned innocently. Leo raised his eyebrow. "Oh, don't give me that look! Anyway, as I said: we have a situation. Follow me."

Leo followed his wife back up to the stairs to the attic and was met with a familiar face, "Oh, Penny, good to see you again… but who's…?" Leo trailed off, gesturing to the unknown woman in the attic.

"Leo, this is Astrid Bowen, my great-aunt. Astrid, this is my husband, Leo."

"Nice to meet you," Leo said, smiling at the dead witch, "so, what's going on?"

"Uh, to cut a long story short: Wyatt is currently possessed by the Woogy from underneath the Manor and we're thinking of a plan to get him back,"

"But I thought that-"

"Yeah, we thought that too," Piper sighed, turning to her daughter, "did you find anything, Mel?"

"Ugh! No. He's in the area because the crystal keeps pulling – it just won't settle on any given place," the frustrated witch replied.

"Well, that means there's still some Wyatt left in him. Umbris can't suppress him completely," Chris noted.

"We still need to think of a plan of action for when you face him," Grams said, "how about using my spell again to banish him someplace?"

"But that'd only delay the inevitable of him being released again when another earthquake hits," Piper debated.

"You'll need to vanquish him," Astrid said firmly, "and I think I have an idea as to how. By myself I didn't have the power to destroy him, but now, maybe all of you can? You're a Charmed One, Piper, and you have superbly powerful children to boot," she smiled at Chris and Melinda, "Surely your combined powers could put a stop to his darkness?"

"I'm not sure. No powers seem to work on its essence form," Piper noted, "what about its body? Will powers work against his full form?"

"Yes, they will – but you should avoid that at all costs," Astrid instructed, "he's possibly the most powerful demon I've ever come up against."

"Then what should we do?"

"I'll get to work on a dispossessing potion," Grams suggested, "it's a start."

"Will it work?" Chris asked.

"It's worth a shot, Chris. It's better than nothing."

"And I shall phone Phoebe to get her butt over here. Hopefully she can get a premonition of where Wyatt is or will be," Piper said as she walked over to the portable phone on the table and began to dial Phoebe's phone number.

"And I'll keep scrying," Melinda sighed.

"Come on, Phoebe, pick up, pick up… Aha! Phoebe, I'm glad you're there – we have a situation on our hands, Wyatt's been possessed…" Piper's face dropped, "w-whaddya mean the girls are missing? How – when?... Have you seen Wyatt? No? Okay, okay. You deal with your situation and I'll deal with mine. I just hope Paige is having more luck than us two. Okay, we'll talk later, bye."

"What's happened?" Leo asked.

"Penny, Charlotte and Grace are currently missing," Piper grimaced.

"Do you think it was Wyatt?"

"Phoebe hasn't seen him today, but that still doesn't rule him out. Give me a minute, I'm gonna call Paige." Piper dialled her other sister's number, "Paige! Right, we have a situation – Wyatt's been posse- whoa, Paige, calm down. What's the matter? ...Pandora is WHAT? God could this day get any worse? Okay, okay. You deal with that and I'll deal with my problem. We'll talk later – bye."

"What's the matter now?" Grams smirked.

"Pandora's in a whole lotta mess … But Paige'll sort all that out. We need to focus on Wyatt."

Chris crossed the room and stood next to Astrid examining the Book of Shadows. "Is there anything in here about how to dissipate or destroy shadows? It might help with Umbris," Chris asked as he turned the page, "Oh, would you look at that? The spell to banish the Woogyman is on the page before Umbris' entry. Coincidence?"

A soft, monotone jingling sound was heard throughout the attic. "Well, it appears that my time is up," she walked across the room and stood in the candlelit circle.

"Mine too," Grams sulked, moving to the circle with Astrid, "Piper, do you think you could finish the potion?"

"But, wait – we still don't know how to stop Umbris," Melinda said.

"You will," Grams smiled.

"We're Warren witches, my dear – the very best! You can do this! Blessed be, my dears. Blessed be," Astrid held her hands together and closed her eyes as white lights carried her and Grams away back to the afterlife. A breeze filled the room that extinguished the candles' flames.

"What now?" Chris asked.

The crystal hanging from Melinda's fingers suddenly dropped to the table, "I've got him. He's at a cemetery. I vote we go there and kick some demon ass."

"But you'd also be kicking your brother's ass," Piper said as she stirred the potion mixture that Grams had left behind. "It's almost done."

"What about me?" Leo asked.

"You should stay here, dad," Chris said, stepping away from the Book, "it'll be far too dangerous," he took a quick look at where the crystal was pointed on the map.

"But what if the demon comes here and I'm left all alone and defenceless?..." Leo said, pretending to be distraught.

Piper narrowed her eyes and smiled, "Fine, you can come with us. But if you get hurt and we can't heal you…"

"I won't."

"…Right, this is done," the mother witch poured the potion mixture into four glass vials. "One each," she handed her family a vial. "Are we all set?"

"Just one sec," Melinda said, moving to the Book of Shadows and scribbling something down on a post-it note, "okay, let's go."

The four of them joined hands and disappeared in a shower of white and blue lights.

* * *

Leo, Melinda, Chris and Piper reappeared in a flurry of light that illuminated brightly against the thick, dark, fog that settled over the cemetery like a heavy blanket.

"Are you sure this is it? I can barely see anything," Piper said.

"This is it," Chris replied, "see the outline of that building there?" he pointed into the distance, "that's the mausoleum that he took me to before – come on!"

The four of them moved quickly over to the mausoleum and suddenly stopped.

"Wait – where's Wyatt? I don't like this…" Leo said as he scanned the area looking for his son.

"Right here, dad," the Woogy snarled as 'Wyatt' stepped out from behind the focal structure.

Melinda flicked out her hands but her brother was too quick as he raised his hand and a dome of blue energy surrounded the four family members, rendering her powers useless.

"Damnit!"

"Wyatt, you can fight this!" Chris called out.

"No he can't," the Woogy replied, "and neither could you." Chris' gaze fell to the floor.

"Shut up!" Melinda raged, "now give us back my brother and maybe I won't vanquish your sorry ass!"

"You're in no position to be making negotiations – and besides, I want you to be here for the big reveal," the shadow replied smugly. 'Wyatt' turned his back on his family and focused his sights on the mausoleum in front of him. He held out his hand and the blood-caked athamé appeared in his palm in dark orbs. He waved his hand and the blade shot out of his hand and thrust into the ground. The barrier shot up and blazed a bright pink light before dimming. The dark witch forced out his hands and an explosion of dark orbs erupted out from the shield making it waver and dim. He threw them out once again as a burst of dark orbs scattered outwards from the shield. Its pink light waxed and waned as surges of energy jolted around the perimeter. With a smirk and one last forward thrust of his arms, 'Wyatt's power exploded outwards from the barrier as it shattered into a thousand pieces before disappearing. He opened the gated entrance, stepped into the structure and moved down the cold, stone steps and disappeared from sight.

"Any ideas on how to get out of this?" Leo asked.

"Breaking out might be a start," Piper retorted. She flicked out her hands and a small burst of energy bounced off of the magical dome, causing it to wobble slightly before standing firm once again.

All of a sudden, an eerie scream echoed around them as a great plume of darkness zoomed out of the mausoleum in the form of a decrepit and twisted face. 'Wyatt' stepped out of the structure and moved to one side of the entrance with a bowed head. Footsteps grew louder and louder until a tall, cloaked figure shrouded in darkness stepped out of the stone building. Umbris' skin was medium-grey in colour, his eyes gleamed with a blood-red sheen and his face was laden with black tribal tattoos. He breathed in deeply and stretched his limbs.

"Ahh, how I've missed my body," the familiar deep and husky voice said.

"Umbris…"

"In the flesh... once again," the demon smirked, "now, which one of you would like to die first?"

"No one will by dying today, Umbris!" Melinda cried. She pulled out the post-it note from her pocket and began to read:

"I am light, I am one too strong to fight,  
Return to dark, where shadows dwell,  
You cannot have this Halliwell.  
So go away and leave my sight  
And take with you this endless night."

'Wyatt' began to convulse as streams of darkness escaped from his mouth and eyes. The tendrils converged in mid air and swiftly engulfed Umbris before fading away. The cleansed witch's hair faded into a light blonde colour and the dark facial hair disappeared. Wyatt slunk to his knees and fell to the floor as the blue sphere of energy that encased his family dissolved.

"How did you know that'd work?" Chris asked his sister.

"I didn't – and it didn't work either. I was trying to vanquish him!" Melinda replied.

"So you've freed your brother – congratulations. You puny witches still think you have what it takes to stop me?" Umbris jeered. His eyes caught sight of Piper and he smirked, "Oh? Still alive I see? I think I'll make sure that you stay dead this time."

"We'll see about that," Piper retorted as she flicked out her hands once more and half of Umbris' body suddenly exploded outwards in a plume of dark smoke. Her eyes widened as the darkness swirled around the demon and his just-exploded body reformed.

Umbris examined his reconstituted arm and side, "That wasn't very nice," he sneered, before throwing out his newly reformed arm and firing a powerful blast of dark energy that slammed into Piper and sent her hurling backwards.

"Piper!" Leo called as he ran to his wife's aid.

"Chris!" Melinda cried.

The demon focused on his past possession and smirked. The two flung out their arms and pressed against each other with their telekinetic wills.

"You can do it, Chris!"

"No he can't! He couldn't withstand me before and can't withstand me now!" Umbris hissed as he jutted his arms forward and pressed harder against Chris' power.

Chris was slowly being pushed backwards – his shoes desperately tried to grip the floor beneath him for a solid footing. Melinda flicked her wrist but Umbris met her power with his own, sending out a ball of shadowy energy from his hand that met Melinda's explosive power head on. The ball of shadow burst into a thin stream of smoke. Umbris raised his hand and the stream reformed into a whip which he swung forward and it struck Melinda across the face, knocking her to the ground.

Mel touched her cheek and felt the warm, freshly-drawn blood on her fingertips. Her eyes narrowed and she stood up. She flicked out her arms once again and the front of the mausoleum exploded, sending chunks of stone in every direction as the front gate was flung off of its hinges and was thrust straight into Umbris' back. The demon cried out in pain and morphed into a tornado of swirling black smoke.

"Mel!" Chris exclaimed, looking over the devastated building.

"So I don't have complete control over my power yet, so sue me!" the youngest witch replied, "and it worked, didn't it?" gesturing to the funnel of darkness before them.

The two witches ran over to their unconscious brother and knelt beside him. "Wyatt? Wyatt?" Chris said, gently shaking the elder witch, "come on, Wyatt, wake up!"

Wyatt stirred and opened his eyes slightly, "Chris?" he said, his voice riddled with exhaustion and confusion, "Melinda? Where am I? What-"

"There's no time to explain, Wyatt. You need to orb you and Melinda home, now! Can you do that for me?" Wyatt nodded. "Good," Chris turned to his sister, "Mel, you go with Wyatt and I'll get mom and dad. When we're all together we'll think of another plan to vanquish Umbris." Melinda nodded too. "Right, off you go," Chris said, tapping Wyatt on the shoulder. The eldest and youngest witch disappeared in a wave of lights.

Chris turned and ran towards Leo who was crouched over Piper trying to nurse her wounds. The raging swirl of darkness ceased spinning and Umbris reappeared, glaring at the witch-whitelighter. The demon lashed out his arm and Chris was sent flying backwards and slammed into a nearby tree. The witch fell to the floor and whimpered in pain as he crawled behind the towering tree, trying to escape the demon's gaze. Chris poked his head out from behind the tree and noticed the athamé still stuck into the ground. He waved his arm and the dagger flew out of the dirt and zipped through the air straight into Umbris' back. The demon cried out with rage and his hands began to amass a spiralling dark power. Chris removed himself from his natural cover and sprinted towards his parents as the demon launched the energy from his hands. The witch's body dissolved into sparkling lights as he dived on his parents and the three of them disappeared from view as the blasts of dark energy exploded in the spot the two witches and mortal were in not a second before.

Umbris reached behind him, ripped the blade out of his back and held it to his face. "I still have plans for you, my pretty – don't you worry about that," he snarled before he disappeared in a plume of dark smoke.

* * *

**Author's Note: Please leave a review!**


	5. Lights in the Void

**Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of its established characters. Any non-canon characters and situations are of my own creation.**

**Author's Note: I'm really sorry that this took so long to update! Writer's Block seriously sucks.**

**PS: you really should listen to the song "Fire (Aim Your Arrows High)" by VersaEmerge – it fits this chapter SO well.**

* * *

**Episode 1x01:**

"With a Shadow of a Doubt"

The Halliwells stayed together in the parlour with a shame that hung heavy on their hearts. The family of witches stayed silent and kept their thoughts to themselves for some time. They were still reeling from their crushing defeat at the hands of Umbris, the dark demon that had plagued their day from the beginning, and if things carried on the way they had been… he'd be plaguing them long passed the day's end.

Leo stepped into the room holding a silver tray that held and stacks of cups and saucers and a pot of tea on top of it. No sooner had he set it down onto the parlour coffee table had Piper dived at the tea pot, hurriedly filling a cup with the hot beverage.

She took a sip and uttered, "Ooh, chamomile! Good – I'll need three cups."

"What is the matter with all of you?" Leo began, looking around at his gloomy family, "You can't give up because you didn't win the first time! Not all wars are won with a single battle."

"It's not just that we didn't win, dad. It's the fact that Umbris handed our asses to us on a silver platter! How do we know it won't happen again?" Chris replied.

"Because you're descendants of the most powerful line of witches the world has ever seen! And to boot, you come from the most powerful witch of all," Leo smiled at his tea-drinking wife who couldn't resist smiling back, "and if Astrid, one of your ancestors, could deter this demon for so long then surely with all of the power you guys possess you can put an end to him once and for all."

"There's absolutely nothing in the Book that can help us though," Melinda sighed, flipping through the Book of Shadows which she held on her lap, "I've been through it a dozen times. There's nothing."

"What about Astrid's entry?" Leo asked.

"Let's see…" the youngest witch hastily flipped through the ancient tome until she arrived at the desired page, "-_for if he ever regains the use of his body he will be nigh impossible to vanquish…_ yeah, I think we're screwed."

"Stop focusing on the negative! You can't give up because of a few setbacks! Focus on what Astrid and Grams did right and go from there," Leo urged.

"As much as I don't want to admit it," Piper said as she put down her cup and stood next to her husband, interlocking their hands together, "your father's right. We can't give up – not now! Not when the world needs us most."

Chris poured himself a cup of camomile tea and quickly began to drink it.

"Chris?" Piper laughed, "Are you okay? You hate tea."

"I know," he grimaced at the taste, "but if drinking this helped you get over how badly Umbris pummelled us then maybe it can help me too." Piper smiled is her son guzzled down the calming beverage.

"How badly can the world really need us anyway?" Melinda asked, lazily turning on the television with the remote control in her hand.

The screen flashed on and upon it was a newsreader with the headline _BREAKING NEWS_ behind her_. _"Numerous reports have been flooding in today from the San Francisco area about a mysterious, thick fog that has been covering parts of the city. Earlier today this phenomenon was allegedly seen at a local cemetery and then disappeared without a trace… This just in," the newsreader said as she held her earpiece, "the fog has reportedly appeared again but this time near the Golden Gate Bridge area. We go to Peter Barrett for an update."

The screen flashed once more and a male news reporter was seen standing on the Golden Gate Bridge with a looming grey fog in the distance behind him up a nearby hill. "As you can see here, the fog has appeared over the hill behind us which is very strange since fog usually appears around bodies of water which begs the question: why is it up over on the hill and not where I'm standing on the bridge, over one of the largest bodies of water in the city? It has been reported that people who attempt to enter the fog can expect to pass out or even exit the fog in the exact same position they entered, even if they only travelled forwards and made no turns. This bizarre occurrence has scientists baffled. That's all for now."

"Does that answer your question?" Piper asked. Melinda sighed in defeat. "Honey," Piper continued, turning to her husband, "do we have any leftover fireworks in the garage?"

"I think so. Why do you ask?"

"Well, by the looks of things Umbris is trying to cloak himself from us. He likes to hide in the dark, right? So, why don't we crash the party and give him a light show he'll never forget."

"Is that a good idea?" Chris asked, "Wouldn't that just attract more unwanted attention?"

"Have you seen that fog?" Piper replied, gesturing towards the television, "Chances are that if nothing mortal can get in then nothing mortal can get out either."

"Mortal? What makes you say that?" Leo inquired.

"Well, fireworks are man-made and regular people couldn't enter it without some strange side-effect. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you were able to enter it before because we bypassed the fog by orbing in – meaning that you were protected by Chris' magic." Piper explained.

Leo smiled, "See, you guys? Your mom's got the right idea! You can do this if you just focus."

"So…" Melinda began, closing the Book of Shadows, "the plan would be to weaken Umbris with the light the fireworks create? We could even go a step further, maybe? Make a magical light show of our own aswell, to use as a weapon against him? I mean, we have two half-whitelighters here, so it shouldn't to too hard to whip up a light storm, right?"

"Now you're thinking!" Leo beamed. "What do you think, Chris? Wyatt?" he asked, looking at his two sons. Chris nodded enthusiastically but Wyatt said nothing as he silently stared out of the parlour window, gazing upon the darkened street beyond.

"Wyatt?" Piper said, eying her son with concern. "Are you okay? You've not said anything since we got back."

Wyatt shook his head gently. "I can't do this," he said, swiftly making his way past his parents into the hallway.

"Wyatt?" Piper asked again, uncertain of how to get through to her son. The eldest whitelighter's body erupted into spiralling lights and headed upstairs.

"Oh no you don't!" Chris exclaimed, his body also becoming a wash of bright lights. He quickly shot through the air, tackled his brother's orbed body and dragged him back downstairs into the hallway. The two swirls of glowing lights disappeared as the two brothers faded into view. "You do NOT get to walk away! Not when we need you!" he raged.

Wyatt turned away and leaned on the dining room table. Melinda rushed passed her parents and stood by the circular table in the middle of the hallway between the living room and the stairs.

Piper tried to reach out to her daughter but Leo stopped her. "They need some time to figure things out. Come on, let's go get those fireworks." Piper opened her mouth to argue but then stopped. The two slipped past the fireplace and out of the parlour. They headed through living room, into the conservatory and out into the garden.

"What the hell are we doing? There's a demon out there that we need to vanquish and what, we're just gonna stand here and argue? Pull yourselves together!" Melinda said as she looked at her brothers distastefully.

"Gee, Melinda. When did you become the older sibling?" Chris smirked.

"When you two stopped acting like older brothers!" she snapped back. Chris frowned.

"… You don't understand. I can't do this," Wyatt said softly with sadness in his eyes.

"Do what?" Melinda asked.

"This. Fight Umbris. It's so easy for you all to think that this'll be a piece of cake because I'm _apparently_ some amazing force of good. But I don't feel so good right now."

"What's gotten into you, Wyatt? What's the matter?" the youngest witch probed further.

"I hurt someone today – an innocent. I wasn't strong enough to fight against Umbris and someone got hurt because of it – and because of me and my so-called _power_ Umbris was reunited with his body. I could have gotten you all killed at the cemetery! I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you because of me," he confessed.

"Wy," Chris said, gently smiling through a look of concern, "I understand how you feel. Because of me, mom could have died. I wasn't strong enough. I know what it's like to feel evil-"

"But you can't let it get to you!" Melinda encouraged.

"Easier said than done, Mel," Chris sighed, "You just don't understand-"

"LIKE HELL I DON'T!" the youngest witch exploded, taking her two brothers by surprise. "Let me tell you two a little something! Do you remember my Magic School graduation? Do you remember how _excited_ I was to finally finish practicing magic so I could actually do some _GOOD_ in the world? Do you remember when I went to shake Robbie Thornton's hand and all of a sudden there's a _goddamn HOLE in his chest_? Have _YOU_ ever discovered that you had a new power the moment you've nearly killed someone with it? Have _YOU_ ever felt like your own magic has _BETRAYED _you? That what you've done is the most _EVIL_ thing you could ever do? Have _YOU_ ever had your whole class look at you like you're some kind of _MONSTER_?" she cried as streams of searing tears slid down her cheeks. Her voice began to crack as she fought back the flow of tears. "I hated this power. What good could come of it? For a while I wanted to bind my powers because of it! It _still_ haunts me!

"But you know what?" she said softly, "I know I'm not evil – and you know _why_? Because I did something about it! I stepped up and I set things right! If it wasn't for the Magic School enchantments he'd be dead! But still no one could heal him. I knew that if it was my magic that had done that to him then it had to be _MY_ magic that fixed it. I pulled myself together and I _SAVED_ HIM! I… I saved him and I apologised. I set things right… You're both so quick to dismiss me, because I'm _poor, helpless little Melinda_… WELL GUESS WHAT? I understand! I probably understand a helluva lot more than you two do! So don't you _DARE_ say that I don't!" Melinda stood still, her body shaking in fury. She took one last look at her brothers before the emotion overwhelmed her and the tears erupted from her eyes.

Wyatt shot towards her and wrapped his arms around Melinda, pulling her into a tight hug. She sobbed heavily into his chest as Chris joined the embrace with his brother and sister.

"Mel…"

"We had no idea…"

The three siblings stood in silence for a moment in union before the youngest spoke, "You're not evil," Melinda said softly through the sobs and tears. "Neither of you are. You're not evil. You might've been forced to do terrible things today but that does _not_ make you bad people. It wasn't your fault – it was out of your control. Wyatt, you helped mom today after Umbris attacked her. You healed her – you _saved_ her. She's still here with us because of you. And Chris, when Wyatt was unconscious in the cemetery you took the lead. You stood head-to-head against the most powerful demon we've ever faced and you held your ground. Because of you, Wyatt and I were able to get home safely, as were mom and dad. You've both saved us all today. You two are the white lights in this family – you _are_ angels after all," she laughed.

"No, Melinda. Whitelighters or not, we're not the light in this family. You are," Wyatt corrected, "I might not mention often, but you're a ray of light and hope in my life-"

"Our lives," Chris corrected. Melinda smiled.

"You always bring us back together. You stop this family from falling apart. You're the glue that holds us together," Wyatt said, gently kissing his sister on the head.

"And you're always there to kick our asses when we need it," Chris said as the three of them laughed. Their embrace tightened as they all closed their eyes.

The room was illuminated by a dazzling light that radiated outward from the chandelier above the three siblings. The funnel of light danced around them as globules of dark energy were swiftly ejected from each witch. Melinda opened her eyes and jumped, taken aback by the display of light and dark.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"I have no idea," the eldest sibling replied as he looked around the room at the spinning lights and floating darkness.

The three siblings stood back-to-back as they faced the unknown forces that swirled about them.

Melinda flicked out her hand towards the lingering darkness. "Well, they're not freezing, so it's not demonic."

The entities hissed and mounted an attack, forcing their way through the air to the Halliwells. Their path was blocked by the funnel of white light which suddenly erupted outwards, decimating the oncoming shadows into nothingness. The light faded and left the young witches confused.

"Again – what the hell was that?" Chris said, perplexed.

"A ploy of Umbris' to corrupt us again?" Melinda suggested.

"Whatever it was, it's gone now," Wyatt said as he quickly surveyed the area just to make sure. "Is it just me or do you two feel… lighter? Like a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, I do," Chris agreed.

"I do too," Melinda said as a smile jumped to her lips. "Based on what just happened, I think we're both right."

"Right about what, Mel?"

"It's not just you two and it's not just me who's the light in the family. We all are. We conquered whatever the hell that was with the light that we hold within ourselves. So, what're we waiting for? Let's go and do the same to the demon that's out there waiting for us!"

"Let's do it," Wyatt agreed with a new sense of vigour and hope that had been ignited inside his heart.

"Together," Chris finished, holding out his hand as the two other Halliwell witches held his hand with their own.

As they let go of each other's hands Piper and Leo came bustling through the kitchen doorway. "Are we all set?" their mother beamed. Her offspring nodded cheerfully.

"So, now that we're rearing to go – what's the plan?" Wyatt asked.

"We orb in and crash the party with these fireworks," Piper said, gently patting the explosives that she held in her arms.

"Hopefully that'll weaken Umbris enough for us to vanquish him… with a spell maybe?" Melinda added.

"Have you thought of one?" Leo asked his daughter who shook her head.

"I've been thinking about it," Chris interjected, "and Grams has come the closest to subduing Umbris. While Astrid's work was amazing, Grams' spell has been the main thing keeping his essence at bay for the past twenty-odd years. So, we could rework the spell slightly and make it a vanquishing spell. Grams may not have been powerful enough to vanquish Umbris by herself but I'm thinking that with all of our combined powers we will be able to."

"Have you thought of how to change the spell?" the mother witch asked.

"I have the general jist of it, yeah," her son replied, pulling a pen and pad of paper from the living room sofa-side drawer. He wrote down the edited spell and slipped the note into his pocket.

"Is that everything?" Piper inquired, casually looking around as if there was possibly something that they had all forgotten.

"I think so," Leo answered.

"Alrighty then – let's go!" Wyatt encouraged, huddling together with his family as they all disappeared from sight in a blur of shimmering orbs.

* * *

As they reformed in a swift glow of lights, the Halliwell family were encased by a surrounding blackness. The fog had grown thicker, darker and more suffocating than ever before. It threatened to bind and choke the witches and mortal where they stood. They coughed continuously, trying to fight back against the smoky invasion.

"The fog-" Melinda tried to say before the impending shadow slithered tightly around her throat.

The two brother whitelighters glanced at each other and nodded. Just as they had appeared, the family were once again engulfed in a brilliant white radiance with vibrant orbs spiralling around them. The shadow hissed and retracted its grasp. The light pierced through the encroaching darkness, illuminating the area and revealing the thin, densely packed trees that were about. The shadow began to encircle its prey, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It snaked its way around the light, slowly growing ever closer to its target.

As it approached the blinding lights the shadow suddenly swirled away and dissipated. The nearby trees were cleared of the darkness and the moon shone brightly in the previously blacked out sky. The family left their light-encased safe haven and reappeared.

"What on earth…?" Wyatt asked.

"I don't know," Leo answered, "perhaps it was Umbris?"

"If it was then he must be even more powerful than before. The fog was not nearly this threatening when we fought him at the cemetery," Piper noted.

"It'd be handy if Henry was here," Chris said, sighing.

The sound of a branch snapping drew the family's attention away from each other and to the trees that surrounded them.

"…Has anyone noticed that it's gotten… darker… since we started talking?" Melinda asked as she looked around. She was right. The thin trunks of the trees had become obscured and the moon's light that shone overhead had dimmed.

Whispers whipped around them in the darkness. Shadows stirred and stared at the humans who stood before them. A sudden gust of wind howled through the trees and washed over the surprised family. An eerie, twisted wail radiated out from the trees and grew louder and louder until finally, a huge tornado of shadow burst forth from darkness beyond.

Wyatt and Chris instinctively held their family and they were all morphed into a flurry of white lights. The raging pillar of shadow did not waver this time and stared intently at the family. It dived at them with a huge mouth that gaped open, hungry and ready to devour them whole.

The two whitelighters reacted quickly, darting out of the path of the monster that followed them. They shot out of the clearing and zigzagged between the trees in an effort to hinder the shadowy assailant's movements. Their efforts were in vain as the darkness was as nimble as they were, swerving in between the trees at a frighteningly swift pace.

"Why don't we just orb out?" Leo asked from within the magical embrace of the swirling orbs, "It's still gaining on us!"

"We can't," Wyatt replied, "the shadow above us is blocking our ability to leave the area."

"How were we able to get in then?" Melinda asked.

"We were let in. A trap set by Umbris no doubt," Piper quipped.

"Wyatt, watch out!" Chris cried, as they headed straight towards a thick tree trunk.

The two whitelighters split apart, carried on their orbed movement in opposite directions around the trunk and then joined the family together again once on the other side of the tree.

In the confusion of the split, the brothers failed to see the tendril of darkness that slithered before them in an attempt to block their path from the clearance ahead. The shadow caught the two whitelighters by the feet, sending them both, Melinda, Piper and Leo flying. The family re-materialised out of the bright lights and crashed to the grassy floor with a thud.

Wyatt got to his feet, zipped around and raised his hands in preparation for the oncoming darkness… but nothing came. The fog was still and the wind silent. It was as is nothing had followed them.

"Ow," Melinda groaned as she peeled herself from the floor and stood up, cast her gaze to the opening plateau before them and her eyes widened. "Get down, quick!" Melinda urged her family as they hid behind a thick hedge in front of them.

The clearing was rather large and the border to the woods encased them in a semi-circular formation, for the other half of the opening ran on to the edges of the cliffs that overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge. A cloaked figure hung in mid-air above the edge of the cliff, with its arms held open and its head rolled back. In front of the figure was a blood-stained blade which glowed red as powerful currents of purple lightning coursed through the blade and shot into the figure's palms.

"What is he doing?" Piper exclaimed; shocked at the sight she beheld.

"Drawing power from the athamé by the looks of things," Leo replied.

"Astrid did say that it'd be bad if Umbris had the blood of the Warren matriarchs at his disposal…" Chris said.

"If he absorbs the magic of the Warren line then he'd be impossible to defeat – that's _our_ magic he's absorbing if he has it we won't be able to use it against him," Melinda deduced.

"…I don't think it's the Warren magic he's siphoning… look closer." Wyatt said as he narrowed his eyes and strained his sight. Dark clouds of energy clung to the blade that swirled about it in a circular motion. It seemed as if the very night sky was being sucked into the floating weapon. "I think he's channelling the power of the night itself."

"No way," Piper and Melinda said at the same time.

"That could throw off the balance of the entire world," Leo warned, "we have to do something."

"Don't worry," Piper began, "we have a window of opportunity here. Even with the power of our family's magic a ritual like that would take a very long time to complete. If we distract him and break his concentration he shouldn't be able to finish what he's started. So, let's get these babies set up," she fondly patted the fireworks in her arms, "and then vanquish him."

The family got started in setting up the fireworks. The largest fireworks were firmly set into the ground and pointed directly at the dark demon that floated before them. Piper was about to set them off when a voice echoed through the enclosure:

"_You think that those __**toys**__ can defeat me?"_

The Halliwells whipped round to find Umbris' eyes fixed upon them. They glowed crimson as the power the Warren magic brought him surged through his body.

"No – but I do hope they piss you off," Piper quipped as she flicked out her fingers and ignited the gunpowder-filled rockets. They blasted off their stands and shot across the sky towards Umbris. One blew up right in front of him, exploding in shower of golden sparks. The other two erupted either side of him in a flurry of blinding blues and greens.

The demon hissed as the show of lights illuminated the darkness that surrounded him. "Foolish witch," he said as he let out a bellowing laugh that radiated across the enclosure and to the darkened woods beyond. The noise dissipated and lines of dark figures began to emerge from the borders of the trees. "You've met my minions already, I believe? Let's hope that they can finish you off for good this time."

"_Minions?"_ Piper gasped.

"Somebody's been busy organising the Underworld," Chris said.

"No, little boy, I've no need of organising the Underworld. I have always had my loyal subjects – who else do you think would attempt to steal the Urn in which I was kept from your ancestors all those generations ago?" the demon smirked.

"Enough of this," Leo cut across, "Kids, you get the minions and your mom and I'll take Umbris."

"Easy for you to say," Piper said dryly as she moved to her husband's side. "Have you got the spell, Chris?" his mother asked holding out her hand.

"Um… the spell needs more than one person to say it and since dad's mortal…"

"We'll get Umbris." Wyatt announced boldy. "There's three of us," he glanced at his siblings, "and I'm not risking you getting hurt, dad."

Piper and Leo's eyes met, as if they were debating the decision without a sound escaping from their lips. The two nodded and then smiled at their progeny.

"Okay," Piper said quietly, "but if you need us…"

The family split into two groups and moved in opposite directions.

Dozens of shadowy figures circled around Piper and Leo as they headed toward the borders of the trees they'd not long emerged from. The mother witch began the battle, flicking out her hands and watching as several of Umbris' minions erupted into dazzling red and purple flames in unison. Enraged, the seemingly endless wave of demons pounced on them, launching bolts of smoking energy at the duo from every angle. Piper swiftly froze the demons in place with a wave of her hand, leaving their powers suspended in mid air.

"Honey, grab these," Piper said as she threw a package to her husband.

"Sparklers?" Leo asked, confused.

"Just open them," Piper urged. Leo did so and held the dozen sparklers in his hand. Piper gently flicked out her fingers and the sparklers set alight.

"Ah, clever," Leo smiled as he proceeded to stab the frozen demons in the void where their heart should be with the lit sparklers. Each stabbing broke Piper's freeze as the demons began to scream in pain before being consumed by unholy fires. After the twelfth demon became a pile of ash on the floor, Piper flicked her wrist and time unfroze. The previously immobilised spheres of demonic energy were released from the magical grasp and they zipped through the air and collided with the opposing demons, reducing what remained of the encircling threat into nothing more than dust in the wind.

Leo hooked an arm around his wife and smiled, "And I call that: teamwork."

"Oh really? I call that kicking ass," Piper replied with a big grin across her face.

As the three Halliwell siblings moved closer to the dark demon lord before them they couldn't help but feel small in comparison to the power Umbris displayed. With each step their hearts sunk heavier into their chests and the world around them seemed to drain of all light. They stopped and looked up at the darkness that seem to tower over them.

"We ready?" Chris asked, his voice wavering slightly as he pulled out the spell from his pocket.

"… It's now or never," Wyatt replied softly.

The three of them stood equidistant from each other in a triangle formation and Chris held the spell away from him so his siblings could read it. They began chanting:

"_We are light,  
We are-"_

A bolt of radiating dark purple energy soared through the air towards the spellcasting Halliwells. Wyatt instinctively threw up his hand and a blue barrier surrounded them. The projectile made contact with the shield but, while it protected them from the blast, the energy exploded outward and knocked the three siblings down to the ground.

"You impudent witches _actually_ think you're a match for me?" Umbris laughed. "At first I thought it was hopeless optimism, but now it's just pathetic."

Wyatt, Chris and Melinda stared at the darkness that floated above them. A swirling orb of purple shadows coalesced in the demon's hand and he leered at them with hatred dripping from his eyes. As he motioned to launch the power in his hands at the helpless Halliwells below, Umbris suddenly exploded in a sea of roaring flames and was knocked off his floating perch. He fell through the air before regaining his posture and dismissing the fire that had hoped to consume him.

The young Halliwells whipped their heads around to see their mother standing proudly with her hands out in front of her. "Stay the hell away from my kids!" she commanded.

"As you wish," the demon snarled before his body evaporated into nothingness. He reappeared behind Piper and his dark, wispy essence engulfed her body. Her eyes surged with dark power and a twisted smile sprouted from her lips as her gaze fixed upon her offspring.

"Piper!" Leo called out.

The possessed witch zipped around and her smirk broadened. She forced out her arm and a surging blast of energy shot across the enclosure towards her husband. A flurry of white lights appeared behind him, clung to him and disappeared along with Leo. The demonic power seared through the white lights and disappeared into the dark mists that shrouded the woods.

Chris and Leo dissolved into view behind Wyatt and Melinda.

"Thanks, Chris," Leo breathed.

"Anytime."

"So, any ideas on how to get your mother out of this mess?" Leo asked.

Drawing a blank, Melinda slipped her hands into her pockets instinctively. Her hand brushed past something that made a beaming smile spring across her face. "The potions! The dispossessing potion we made to use on Wyatt!"

Chris and Leo quickly fetched the vials from their pockets as Melinda hastily threw hers at her controlled mother. 'Piper' flicked her wrist and the bottle exploded into a hundred pieces. Chris flung his potion at 'Piper' and forced it through the air with his mind. It suddenly froze in mid-air inches from its target.

With a smirk, the possessed witch shot a bolt of dark energy at the suspended bottle, turning it to dust. "All out of potions? I guess it's my turn then." Spirals of flaming purple shadows surged from 'Piper' fingertips, growing in size until the energy could barely be contained within the palms of her hands.

With a subtle gesture of his hand, Wyatt orbed the last remaining potion vial from his father's hand and out of sight. It reappeared behind his mother and, with a swift motion of his arm, smashed itself against the witch's back.

Piper exhaled suddenly as the darkness within was expelled from her body and the power dissipated from her hands. The shadow demon reformed in front of her, looking around hastily, unsure of what had happened. He zipped around and stared dumb-struck at Piper who smiled back at him.

"Hi," she smirked before lashing out her hands and blasting the demon away from her. He soared through the air fell to the ground with a thud. Umbris hurried to his feet only to erupt in black flames and smoke at Piper's onslaught. A few seconds later the demon began to reform from the darkness of the night.

"Kids, the spell," Leo urged.

"How do we know it's even gonna work? He might just reconstitute. We're not the Power of Three," Chris pointed out.

"The way mom's goin' there won't be much left besides a black hole in the ground," Wyatt quipped.

Chris stared at his brother in amazement. "Wyatt, you're a genius!"

"… I Am?"

"Yes! We'll turn Umbris into a Black Hole!"

"… You're kidding, right?" Melinda asked.

"No! We turn him into a Black Hole," he pointed at the wording of the spell on the scrap of paper he held in his hand, "because not even light can escape!"

"… That might actually work," Leo encouraged.

"And how are we gonna make him into a spatial phenomenon?" Wyatt wondered.

"Well, we were in a pretty dark place before we came here. If we evoke those emotions again, especially with all the built-up turmoil Melinda bottled up, we could – in theory – transform him into a Black Hole of all things dark. Think of it as overloading his own darkness with our own," Chris replied.

"Wait, you want us to go to that deep, dark place again? I thought we were past that?" said Melinda.

"We are, but it'll always be a part of us. We just need to make it a part of him too."

As the three Halliwell witches discussed their plan of attack their mother ceaselessly assaulted Umbris. Determined to destroy him once and for all, the witch repeatedly combusted the demon into dust only for him to reform from the shadows.

He had had enough of this agonising torture. While regaining his form from the darkness he twisted his ethereal body into a great tendril and lashed out against Piper, striking her shins hard and knocking her off her feet only to fall to the ground. With her guard down the demon threw a twisted ball of energy at Piper.

The three Halliwell siblings and there father materialised in front of the injured witch in a shimmer of lights. Leo helped his wife off the ground and onto her feet.

Wyatt, Chris and Melinda all joined hands and closed their eyes, focusing their darkest thoughts and memories on the demon in front of them. As the demonic power was to make contact with them it was suddenly deflected by a twirling wall of bright light that sparkled around the trio. The ball of energy flew through the air back towards Umbris and struck the demon, causing him to stumble and groan in pain.

"You can't hurt us anymore," Wyatt said softly, remembering the dark thoughts that invaded his heart only hours ago. "We are good people. We are good witches. As long as we're around, evil like you won't be allowed to exist. You're done."

A tear slowly slid down Melinda's cheek as she let go of the pain and torment she kept hidden for so long. The embodiment of their darkest memories emerged from the shadows surrounding the family and swirled through the air until they arrived at their target, devouring Umbris whole.

A jolt shot through the demon's spine as he let out a gasp of breath. Purple electricity coursed through his body as the darkness about him began to swirl in a vicious circle. The fog that had blanketed the area was drawn to him like a vacuum as Umbris' body began to spasm beyond his control.

"Are we ready?" Wyatt asked, turning to his brother and sister. "Without a shadow of a doubt?" The two siblings nodded. "All right then, let's do this."

Wyatt held out his hand. Chris and Melinda followed suit, holding his hand with one of their own. The wall of light that surrounded them dissipated into a soft mist and floated gently around their tightly embraced hands in a piercing white light. The three Halliwells nodded once more before they began to chant in unison:

"_We are light,  
We are stronger than the night,  
The power of we Halliwells,  
Sends you to the brightest hell,  
Beyond the dark and out of sight  
Forever in a void of white!"_

The light that radiated from their joined hands pulsed three times before darting through the air and struck Umbris in the chest. The light split apart in three directions around the demon and slowly began to form a symbol very familiar to the Halliwell family: the triquetra. The symbol expanded outwards as streams of light poured out of it, drawing in the dark fog that dominated the area. Umbris writhed in agony as the light pierced his body. The triquetra pulsed once again and delivered the final blow, sending out a devastating light that utterly dispersed Umbris' body. With a terrible scream the last remnants of the dark demon were sucked into the powerful void of white light. The triquetra stood boldy in front of a backdrop of terrible shadow energies. The display of light and darkness merged into each other, spiralling around one another in a desperate attempt at victory. The powers that be continued their struggle until they simply faded from view.

The Halliwells stood mesmerised at what had just taken place. Umbris, the scourge of the Manor's basement who had plagued them all day, was vanquished.

"You okay?" Piper asked her children.

Melinda wiped the tear from her cheek and smiled. "I think we're just great," she said, beaming at her brothers.

"What is that?" Chris said, looking up at the star-studded sky that was previously hidden from view by the demonic fog. A spiraling trail of dark spheres zipped through the air above them with a distinct buzzing sound.

"Paige'll take care of that. Now, let's get out of here before we make the evening edition of the news," Piper replied.

The two whitelighters embraced their family and disappeared from sight in a shower of twinkling lights.

* * *

The hour grew late as Piper Halliwell enjoyed a pleasant conversation with her two sisters, Phoebe Halliwell and Paige Matthews in the comfortable embrace of the parlour sofas.

"And that's how it ended," Piper sighed. "I'm just so happy that this day has almost come to an end."

"You and me both," Phoebe said. "You and your long-lost demon, my girls disappearing to god-knows where and your destined daughter," she motioned to Paige, "… it makes me wonder if today was just a test."

"A test? For what?" Paige wondered.

"A test to see if they're ready to take up the fight against evil," Piper answered, smiling, "and you know what? I think they _are _ready." She took a sip of her drink before setting it down on the coffee table, "I'll be back in just a sec."

She exited the parlour and made her way to the kitchen. She knocked on the door that lead down to the basement and said, "Chris? Are you okay?" before opening the door and looking down the stairs that led to her son's bedroom.

"Yeah, I'm fine," a distracted Chris replied.

Piper saw him grabbing a box of matches and lighting a circle of candles that stood around the cracks in the floor from the earthquake. "Chris," she laughed, "what are you doing?"

"I just thought I'd do a ritual or two to make sure that there isn't anything else down here. There was the Nexus, then Umbris … I don't want any more surprises in the future," he said, getting ready to cast a spell.

"Okay then, but if you do find anything, give me a call."

"Will do," Chris replied, smiling up at his mother.

Piper closed the door and left the kitchen. She spotted her husband coming down the stairs and swiftly moved over to talk to him. "How're Mel and Wyatt doing?"

"They're fine," he smiled. "You worry too much."

"I know I do," Piper admitted, burying herself into Leo's arms. "I'm just worried that maybe it would be too much for them. I mean, if I had to face Umbris at their age, I probably would have been a neurotic wreck."

"You've always been a neurotic wreck," Leo pointed out. Piper laughed. "They can handle this. We brought them up well. They know their stuff. We just need to have a little faith."

"You're right," Piper sunk into her husband's chest. "Honey… I think I might have been too hard on Melinda this morning. I was really on her case about the Magic School Student Committee thing."

"Don't worry about it. I had a talk with her before and I agreed that she doesn't have to be a part of it if it's not where her heart lies."

The youngest Halliwell of the house descended the stairs and headed for the front door.

"Ah! Melinda! Just the girl I wanted to see," Piper began, removing herself from her husband's arms. "I was wondering, seeing as you're no longer a part of the Student Committee, if you'd maybe like to work at the restaurant? I could always use another beautiful waitress," she beamed enthusiastically.

"I'll think about it," her daughter smiled back.

"… Are you going out? At this time of night?" Piper asked, realising that Melinda was fully dressed unlike herself who proudly wore her pyjamas and night gown.

"Is that okay? I was meant to meet a friend before but then the whole ordeal with Umbris got in the way."

"Okay, but-"

"Oh, you're not gonna give me a curfew are you? Not after I just helped vanquish a really powerful demon…" Melinda smiled cheekily.

Piper sighed in defeat, "Are you staying out?"

"If that's okay."

"In that case, yes, I'm giving you a curfew. Be home tomorrow morning by half ten."

Melinda laughed, "See you tomorrow," she said as she moved to leave the Manor.

"Oh, Melinda," Leo called, stopping his daughter in her tracks, "no more exploding practice on Magic School doors, please?" he grinned.

Melinda wondered how he knew it was her. "I promise," she smiled before finally exited the Halliwell Manor.

Piper turned to her husband and said, "She knows I was serious about the curfew, right?"

* * *

Wyatt lay on his bed exhausted. He was drained both physically and mentally by the day's events. He and his family had faced one of the most powerful demons he had ever come across or even heard of! A smile appeared on his lips as he mused over what had happened in the last twenty-four hours - the good and the bad… but especially the good.

A buzzing from his cell phone diverted his attention away from his thoughts. He brought the device to his face and read the message on the screen:

_Hey, Wyatt. Thank you for this morning, it really made my day. Speak soon?  
- Debbie x_

His smile widened as he frantically typed a message back to his newly made acquaintance.

* * *

Melinda anxiously knocked on the door in front of her. A moment later, a tall, dark-haired man opened the door.

"I'm _really _sorry that I'm so late," Melinda said, her eyes not looking up to meet his. "Something came up – family emergency."

"Hey, it's okay," the man smiled softly, bringing a finger to her chin to lift her face to meet his, "you're here now, that's all that matters."

Melinda sunk into his chest and sighed in delight.

"… You hungry? I just ordered a pizza."

Melinda couldn't help herself from laughing, "Pizza would be pretty damn perfect right about now, Jeff." The two made their way inside and grabbed a bite to eat.

Sometime later, the two sat on a sofa in a small, cosy-looking room. The television showed some rather uninteresting images and an empty pizza box lay open on the coffee table.

Melinda was curled up next to Jeff, his head leaning on hers. "So, how was your day?" she asked through a yawn.

"My day? Oh, pretty much a typical day in the life of Jeff. Although, I did go to a bookstore."

"What did you get?"

"Oh, they didn't have the book I was looking for," Jeff said, leaning over to fetch the remote control from the coffee table and, unknown to Melinda, he gently kicked something underneath the sofa, away from view.

"Well, if your day wasn't very interesting… how about we make it more fun?" Melinda suggested as she began to kiss down the long, thin scar on Jeff's neck. He smiled and returned the favour, kissing Melinda with passion.

The two adults hastily moved out of the room to further enjoy each other's company. The only remnant of their night in the living room was the empty box of pizza crumbs and the object underneath the sofa, a book entitled: _Black and White Magic: Through the Ages_.

* * *

**Author's Note: Continue reading the Charmed Again series now! The first Chapter of Episode Two: "The Write Kind of Love" has already been released!**

**P.S: PLEASE leave a review!**


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